


The Children Who Lived (shorts)

by ESawyer



Series: The Children Who Lived [3]
Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: AU, F/M, Harry is a Twin, James is alive, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2019-07-20 21:06:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 60,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16145507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ESawyer/pseuds/ESawyer
Summary: This is a collection of short stories that are canon within my fic "The Children who Lived,". I am basically using this as a way to combat writers block and thought that I might as well upload them here.If you haven't read my fic then I recommend that you do or some of these might not make sense, or you could just do what you want. It's a free world.I'll leave the link to it, anyway.





	1. Chapter 1

Lydia was sat on cross legged on George's bed, desperately trying to get some work done. Everywhere was too loud; the Great Hall was too loud, Gryffindor common room was too loud, the Slytherin common room was too loud, even the library was too loud. If she had known how hard OWL year was going to be, she might have let Voldemort kill her in the summer. After her twelfth breakdown of the week in which she had managed to smash windows in both the Entrance Hall Gryffindor tower, George had kicked everyone out of his dormitory so that she could have some quiet.

For a while, this actually worked and she got the most work done in two hours than she had in the entire school year. At least Hermione would stop badgering her for a while when she saw how many notes she had written up. In fact, this had gone so well that she was even understanding potions for the first time in five years.

Then, as always, Lydia got distracted by something on George's bedside table. It was a small bottle with a faded label on it that read, "nice smelly potion." Curiosity getting the better of her, Lydia picked it up and took in a deep breath, frowning. It smelled quite strange. The first smell she identified was Honeydukes chocolate, then the smell of fireworks that lingered after they had gone off and the smell of freshly baked pastries.

The door opened and George walked in.

"That's where that is!" He exclaimed. Then he paused, "Wait, what does it smell of?" He asked eagerly.

"Fireworks, chocolate and pastries." Lydia shrugged, "Why?"

"Do you know what it is?" He asked, grinning broadly and sitting on the other side of the bed, leaning against one of the bed posts.

"Why would I know what it is? It's a potion." She said. "I don't do potions well. We all know that,”

"It's Armontentia. It's a love potion." He explained, "It smells different to everyone because it's smells of what attracts them most."

"Oh.."

"For example," He continued, "I smell...your perfume, that smokey smell after a duel and fresh laundry. And since we've basically just confessed our undying love for each other, I need to talk to you about something,"

Lydia narrowed her eyes at him. "If you've blown the Slytherin common room up...”

"Why must you always assume the worst?" He asked, but before Lydia could answer he hastily started talking again. "Fred and I are dropping out of school - wait -" He said before she could cut across him. "It's because we found premises for the joke shop and we have a plan and we have more than enough product to start and we have a team of people helping us make everything." He laughed.

"Lyds, this could actually work!"

Lydia stared at him for a moment, allowing herself to process all the information. Then, her face broke into a wide grin and she leapt at him, throwing her arms around his neck. He yelped and they fell backwards off the bed, crashing to the floor.

"So, you're not pissed off about it?" He asked quietly.

"She sat up and looked down at his smiling face. "Pissed off?" She said, "Why would I be pissed off? This is what you've both wanted for ages!"

"So we should go for it?" He asked, suddenly seriously.

"You're the one who's always telling me to go for stuff even if it could blow up in my face," She reminded him.

"I love you,"

"I love you, too."

No one saw them for a while.

 


	2. Bisexual Awakening

The Yule Ball really was the worst thing that could have happened to him. He suddenly realised that he had no idea how to speak to girls that weren’t his friend or sister, but there seemed to be a lot of girls who knew how to speak to him. He just wished that he’d stop to actually think about whether or not he wanted to go with one of these girls instead of saying no straight away.

He was also doing his best to ignore how attractive Cedric Diggory was. Harry seemed to have joined every girl in Hogwarts in staring at him when he passed in the corridor.

“Are you staring at Cedric Diggory?” Lydia asked, a note of amusement in her voice. 

“No!” He said too quickly.

She sniggered.

“Not that I’d blame you. He is good looking,” she said, watching him pass.

He punched her in the arm, “shut up,”

“Maybe you could ask him to the Yule Ball,”

She soon became distracted by the arrival of George Weasley and Harry resisted the urge to tell her to ask him to the ball. He might have made it his life mission to annoy her, but even he wouldn’t embarrass her that much.

Relying on the fact that she was too busy staring at George from afar, Harry hurried away from her and towards Gryffindor Tower, trying to think about anything else but Cedric Diggory. And he did stop thinking about Cedric Diggory and how attractive he really was, but now he couldn’t stop noticing how attractive some boys at Hogwarts were.

Blaise Zabini would probably pass as a model in the Muggle world, their was a seventh year Ravenclaw who smiled at him with perfect passes whenever they passed each other in the corridor and Harry could see what Lydia saw in George. And Fred for that matter, he supposed. In fact, he thought as he sat in the library and tried to finish an essay for Snape, all the Weasleys were quite attractive.

There was a giggle and Cho Chang walked past him, holding a book to her chest. Harry felt himself to red, and also begin to calm down. He wasn’t gay. Of course he wasn’t gay because Cho Chang was attractive. He paused, his quill hovering over his parchment, thinking about all the girls in the school. Hermione wasn’t unattractive, he thought, and Lavender Brown we good looking, as well. And the Patil twins. He’d even go as far as say that Daphne Greengrass and Pansy Parkinson were attractive, when they weren’t being awful.

It was when he saw Draco Malfoy the next day that he knew he was in deep shit. They were stood outside Hagrid’s cabin waiting for their lesson to start. The Slytherins had just come from Transfiguration and Lydia stomped over to him, looking pissed off.

“Malfoy is in one of those moods,” She grumbled, “all morning he’s been insulting me,” 

“Ignore him,” Hermione said.

“Or curse him,” Ron said.

Harry looked over at Malfoy just as Malfoy looked over at him. The sunlight caught on his platinum hair and he smirked. For some reason, Harry couldn’t look away from it. And then, even stranger, he winked.

“Finished drooling, Potter?” He murmured.

He jumped and turned away.

“Attractive,” He whispered.

“What?” Ron asked.

“Nothing,” He said.

Bisexual, He thought. That’s what I am. Bisexual. The only problem was, was that he wasn’t very happy about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found this floating around in my notes, hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> -E.


	3. Duelling Tournament

The only thing that was keeping Lydia sane was Dumbledore's Army. If it weren't for its existence, she was quite sure that she would probably drop out of school and try and stay as far away from Professor Umbridge as was humanly problem. Although, the love that she had for Dumbledore's army didn't mean that she would make it to the lessons on time. In her defence, her common room was the the furthest away from the Room of Requirement than anyone else's and was quite bad at time management.

  
"Sorry! Sorry!" She said when she finally made it to the Room of Requirement.

"You're ten minutes late," Hermione said, looking at her watch.

"I am sorry, _Professor_ ,"

Hermione rolled her eyes but Lydia could see her smiling.

"All right," Harry said, shaking his head at Harry, "There's no point in starting anything new because we're about to go on a three-week break so we thought-"

"We're not doing anything new?" Zacharias Smith asked, "If I'd have known that, I wouldn't have come,"

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you then," Fred said loudly.

"We can practice in pairs. Do what you want - within reason - and then we'll do a bit of duelling," Lyda said, talking more to Fred and George when she said 'within reason,". "And - wait, where's my wand?"

"It's in your hair," Hermione whispered, pointing at it.

"Yeah, it looks stupid," Zacharias said loudly.

Lydia narrowed her eyes at him.

"I don't think you're exactly qualified to comment on people's hair. When was the last time you washed yours?"

All in all, it was quite a successful lesson. Neville had improved beyond recognition and had managed to freeze Harry using the impediment jinx three times in a row. Colin Creevey managed to stun both Fred and George, and Ginny was able to cast Reducto so well, she obliterated two bookcases. Half an hour later, once Luna had finished stunning Hannah Abbot when she was actually meant to be stunning Susan Bones, Lydia blew her whistle and silence fell.

"OK, we'll have a bit of duelling tournament," She smiled. There was a murmur or interest. "We can split into two teams," Her eyes fell onto Zacharias Smith who she was pleased to see looked quite startled. "Smith. Let's start with me and you, yeah?"

George sniggered as Smith tripped up on the way to face her in the middle of the room.

" _Stupefy_!" Lydia yelled.

"Hey!" Smith said, "I wasn't ready!"

"Lord Voldemort won't wait for you to be ready - _Impedimenta_!"

" _Protego_!"

Lydia ducked under the jinx as it came back her way. She jumped back up, " _Flipendo_!" He fell backwards and hit his head on the ground. She thought that he had given up, and lowered her wand, but then he raised his wand arm, " _Expelliarmus_!" Lydia jumped back and threw her wand up again, " _Protego_!". The spell reverberated off the shield charm and back towards Smith who was still on the ground. He finally jumped back up again, looking livid.

" _Wingardium Leviosa!_ " He said. A foe glass lifted off one of the shelves and hurtled towards her at an alarmingly fast rate.

" _Finestra_!" She all but screamed. The foe glass smashed in mid air before it hit her and she made a mental note to thank Hermione for showing her that spell once. Zacharias Smith was advancing on her and raised his wand but before he could utter his next spell, Lydia hastily said " _Petrificus Totalus!_ " His legs locked together and his arms became stuck to his sides as he became rigid and fell backwards to the floor.

Pleased with herself, Lydia stuck her wand back in her bun and gestured for Hermione to perform the counter-curse. Smith spent the rest of the lesson stood in the corner of the room, glowering at her as other duels took place. Harry and Hermione had a rather violent duel that ended up going in Hermione's favour because Harry's glasses fell of at the exact wrong moment, Ron took on Ernie MacMillan and won because although Ernie was a very good wizard, he still hadn't grown out of being overly pompous in the way he waved his wand. When it came time for Fred and George to duel, the entire DA ended up cowering in fear as they sent jinxes and curses in every direction until Ginny finally stepped in and stunned them both before they killed someone - possibly each other.

"I think we'll leave it there," Harry said, looking at his watch. "We won't see each other again until after Christmas when I think we'll start working on Patronuses,"

There was a murmur of excitement as people began to leave in their usual two's and three's. Lydia, Ron, Harry and Hermione began to clear up. The Weasley twins had basically destroyed the room and they spent a good half hour repairing every thing and trying to put it back into some sort of order.

"Let's go." Hermione whispered, prodding Lydia and Ron in the back.

"Wait, what about Harry?" Ron said.

"Cho," Hermione whispered, nodding behind them. Harry and Cho were stood talking to each other.

"See you later, Harry!" Lydia yelled before she could stop herself.

Ron sniggered and Hermione pushed them both out of the room. "You're an absolute nightmare. Both of you!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, this was part of a chapter in my original Children Who Lived fic and I loved it so much, I wanted to share it here! 
> 
> Thank-you for reading! 
> 
> -E.


	4. The Family That Should Have Been

There was a family the should have been.

Minerva thought of them often. More often than was probably necessary, but there was very little she could do about that. Whenever she saw a family of four, they were unceremoniously thrust to the front of her mind, and her day would come to a shuddering halt for a few seconds as she thought about what they were, and what they should have become.

The first time it happened was the first time she had saw little Harry and Lydia Potter after their parents death. Of course, it wasn't the first time she had saw them. The moment Lily Potter had given birth, James Potter had sent her a very lengthy owl saying that whilst he thought that his five minute old children were the best things that had ever happened to the world (the word ‘ever’ had been written in capital letters and underlined a fair few times) he was worried because he knew how much trouble they would probably cause her in eleven years time. Despite this, however, he and would be thrilled if she came to see them.

Minerva had rolled her eyes at the letter but still smiled as she read it, knowing that as much as she complained about James Potter, there was no way she would not go and see his children. And so, the very next week, she had gone to see them in Godric's Hollow.

When she had first entered the house, James had eagerly shown her into the sitting room where Lily was with the children. Harry and Lydia were lay on a matt on the floor, wriggling around under the watchful supervision of Lily. Minerva was quite sure that she had never seen such happy children. They didn't cry once.

“I wanted to give Lydia the middle name of Minerva,” James told her, “but Lily said that if Harry was getting my name as his middle name, it was only fair that Lydia became Lydia Lily. Don't worry though,” he added with a grin, “when we have more children, I'll make sure we get the name Minverva in there somewhere,”

The next time she saw the Potter children, there was a big cut on their faces and Minerva’s heart broke knowing that the house they were going to was not a kind one. She tried to make Dumbledore see sense, offered to bring the children up herself, but he did not listen and so she watched as they were left on the doorstep of a house with inhabitants that she knew would never love them like she would have done.

Over the years and without Dumbledore knowing, Minerva kept her eye on them. She sat on the same wall for days on end, itching to get a glimpse of Harry and Lydia. Every time she did see them, anger rushed through her body. They wore clothes that did not fit, they never smiled and were far too small and skinny for their age. Every time she saw them, Minerva had to remind herself how illegal it was for wizards to attack Muggles with magic. Though she supposed there was a loophole for cats attacking Muggles. No one had to know that it was her.

Of course, she never actually attacked them, but she did take great pride in tearing up Petunia’s pristine flowers and listening her rant and rave through the kitchen window.

Minerva McGonagall counted down the days to the first of September in 1991 more than the excited children who were set to start school that day. On the morning of September 1st, she arrived back at Hogwarts and went straight up to her study, looking for the letter that James had sent her all those years ago. She found it in perfect condition in one of her desks.

“ _Minnie!_

_You’ll never guess what's happened! Lily had the babies! We have two babies! They've only been alive five minutes and yet they are the greatest thing that havs EVER happened to the world!_

_We have a boy and a girl which is good, because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to tell them apart if not. Gideon Prewett told me about how his sister had a set of twin boys last year and no one can tell them apart, even their own mother! Sirius and Remus are here with me. We’re a bit upset that Pete couldn't be here, but he said that he's going to try and see us as soon as possible. He seems a bit distant recently, but Lily thinks I'm being paranoid but I've known him long enough to know that something isn't quite right._

_Anyway, we called the boy Harry James and the girl Lydia Lily! Which are like, the best names in the world. For the entire nine months that Lily has been pregnant, I joked that I wanted to call one of them Fleamont after my dad and she really believed me. But I would never do that, I still have nightmares about the day that Sirius found out that my middle name was Fleamont. It was honestly the worst night of my life and I could not but either of my children through that, however gunny it might have been._

_I made Sirius Godfather to both of them and even though I haven't exactly discussed this with Lily yet, Remus and Pete are going to be godfathers to our future kids. Though, I don think that will be for a while. Although, I suppose that Remus is godfather to them by association since he and Sirius live together now. I'm sorry you couldn't come to the housewarming party but also quite pleased. Remus got very drunk (quite hard for a Werewolf I might add) and almost outed himself. Lily managed to cover for him and joke that he was coming out as gay again. I don't actually think many people believed him. Sirius howling every time he came into the room didn't help, either but because everyone was so drunk, I doubt they remember anything. The only people who weren't drunk were me, Lily, Frank and Alice._

_Alice had her baby this morning as well! Did you know? What are the chances of that! He's called Neville! Frank sent me a picture of him this morning and whilst he's cute, he has absolutely nothing on Harry and Lydia. Don't tell Frank I said that, though. He's now a scary Auror and could definitely kill me quickly and without anyone noticing._

_Lily and Alice are already planing one million and one play dates and joint Birthday parties which is where I ask you this question - what in the name of Merlin are play dates?! Do I have to be in attendance? What do I do? I've read every single book about parenting (even the Muggle ones!) and I still have no clue what what the point of play dates are. I mean...they're kids...they won't remember anything, will they?_

_Anyway, I really should go now. Lily said I shouldn't write you a letter the length of Hogwarts: A History but it's really hard not to. The actual point of this letter was to ask you to come and visit us and now that I'm reading back over everything, I realise that I might have spiralled a bit and now I know how hard you must have found reading my Transfiguration essays when I went off on one about the theory of Vanishing Spells._

_Lily says hi and also apologises for whatever I wrote in this letter,_

_James, your favourite ever student._

_(Ever.)_ ”

Attached to the letter was a picture of James, Lily and their newborns. The family that should have been.

Wiping tears from her eyes, Minerva placed the letter carefully back into the rawer and began to prepare for the day ahead. That evening, she stood in the Entrance Hall, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new first years. When Hagrid knocked o the doors and they swung open, her eyes immediately found Harry and Lydia Potter.

They were both much smaller than the rest of the students and were stood next to another Weasley. She was sure his name was Ron. Harry looked so much like James did on his first day of Hogwarts, though he didn't seem to radiate the same confidence that he did, and neither did Lydia. She seemed unable to lift her eyes from the ground.

The Sorting Ceremony did not quite go in the way that Minerva expected it to. As she could have predicted, Harry went to Gryffindor and she could only imagine that Lydia would go the same way. When the Sorting Hat yelled ‘Slytherin!’ from the top of Lydia’s head, she thought that her face might have betrayed her on showed shock, instead of the neutral look she usually maintained.

Helplessly, she watched as the young girl slowly walk to the table on the far side of the wall and sit on the end, looking as shocked as Minerva felt. A deathly silence had fallen over the hall and she hastily called the next name, not wanting anymore attention to be on the poor girl, but Minerva knew that she was probably made of stronger stuff than she thought when she boldly cheered as Ronald Weasley was sorted into Gryffindor, much to the distaste of her fellow house mates.

After this, Minerva kept a close eye on the Potters. They both reacted to school life at school very differently. Harry seemed to be able to assimilate with ease, but Minerva knew that she was struggling. The other Slytherin first years very clearly disliked her, and Minerva didn't think that the fact she defiantly sat at the Gryffindor table helped her at all. And turning up to the Gryffindor v Slytherin match with the Gryffindor colours painted on her cheeks certainly did not help.

“Miss Potter, can I please speak to you?” Minerva asked after one Transfiguration lesson.

Lydia looked quite surprised but gave a half-hearted shrug and gloomily walked up to her desk, no doubt expecting to get into trouble.

“You have friends don't you, Miss Potter?”

“Pardon?”

“Friends,” Minerva repeated, “you have them,”

Lydia frowned at her, “O-oh, yes. Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, Professor,”

Minerva nodded, “and what about in your own house? Inter-house friendships are important, of course, but there's nothing quite like a bond between housemates,”

“No one in Slytherin likes me,” she said bluntly, “because of who I'm friends with. But I don't mind,” her green eyes flashed, “some of them are very mean and I don't like people like that,”

“Very well, Miss Potter,” Minerva said, making a mental note to speak to Dumbledore, “oh, by the way, the homework you submitted last week was more than exemplary. Your father was gifted at Transfiguration, too,” Minerva knew that that one comment would fill her with joy and decided against telling her about the time he managed to transfigured Sirius Black into half a toilet.

As the year progressed, Minerva found it quite amusing how similar Harry and Lydia were to both of their parents, causing just the right amount of trouble and only ever occasionally taking it that one step too far. At the end of the year when she wrote home to the Dursley’s to explain what had happened with the Philosophers Stone, she imagined how Lily and James would have reacted to it. And, not for the first time, wished for the family that should have been.

As Harry and Lydia moved through the school, Minerva wanted nothing more than to protect them from everything bad. When Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban, she made sure that there was never a teacher too far from them, just in case. Remus was more than happy to keep a close eye on the two of them and Minerva remembered what James had said about him being godfather ‘by association,”. Sometimes, Minerva felt like she was godmother by association too. Everyday, she thanked Merlin that Harry and Lydia were surrounded by people like Arthur and Molly Weasley.

Minerva realised that even she couldn't protect them in their fourth year when Lord Voldemort rose from the dead. She didn't think that she would ever forget the look on their faces when they arrived back to Hogwarts, clutching the dead body of Cedric Diggory. It was then that Minerva McGonagall vowed that as long as she was alive, Lord Voldemort would never lay another hand on either of them if she could help it.

The year James Potter returned from the dead, Minerva still didn't relax around them. James wasn't at school with them, and yet Dolores Umbridge was. The first time she saw Lydia Potter with a bandage tightly wrapped around her cut hand, Minerva had stormed up to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, not even caring that Dolores was teaching.

“Professor Umbridge!” Minerva said, “could I have a word with you. Now?”

Umbridge raised her eyebrows at her but said nothing, and instead followed her out of the room. Dolores Umbridge had now joined the list of people she would very much like to hex and was in very good company with Petunia and Vernon Dursley. And occasionally Albus.

“What is it, Professor McGonagall?” Umbridge asked in her sickeningly sweet voice.

“I would like you to explain to me why Lydia Potter returned from her detention with you with words carved into her skin,” she said in her most dangerous voice.

“You do not want to question my methods, Minerva. In doing so, you are questioning your Minister,”

“Can I please remind you that as Deputy Headmistress of this school, you answer to me and I am asking why on earth you are torturing my students,”

“Lydia Potter is spreading lies about the return of a Dark Wizard. She should be dealt with accordingly,”

Minerva raised her eyebrows, “You clearly are not fit to be a teacher. I shall be speaking to Albus about you,”

“I wouldn't do that, Minerva, you like having a job, don't you?”

“Are you threatening me, Dolores?” Minerva asked, drawing herself up to her full height, “because whilst you are hurting my students, I will not take one step off these grounds,”

Umbridge laughed that horrible laugh and returned to her classroom. McGonagall made another vow to herself that day; Dolores Umbridge would not lay another hand on her students whilst she was at this school. It was with a lot of joy that she remembered Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers never lasted more than a year.

As the year wore on, Minerva thought about Lily. If she were still alive, Minerva had no doubt that she would come marching into school to fight Dolores Umbridge herself. James had already tried on numerous occasions but Dumbledore had forbade him from coming to the school. Minerva thought that she might sneak him in one day. She liked the thought of a stag attacking Umbridge.

The news that Lydia Potter and George Weasley were still dating so long after the Yule Ball was something of a wonder to the students who spoke about it often. When she heard of this news, however, her first thought was panic. Lydia caused enough trouble on her own and so did George, the thought of them joining forces was somewhat nightmare inducing. But, the first time she saw them walking down the corridor hand in hand, it brought a tear to her eye because it was almost like seeing a flipped version of Lily and James. Minerva smiled at the thought of Lily reacting to them being together, she would probably be thrilled that there would at least be one other redhead in the family.

The year after, Minerva saw something she hoped that she would never have to see: Harry and Lydia having a blazing argument in the middle of the Entrance Hall. She was walking down the marble staircase, already quite annoyed at the fact that she had had to miss out on watching a Quidditch match, and became even more annoyed when she heard someone screaming.

“NO YOU DON’T! YOU HAVE NO BLOODY IDEA WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE ME BECAUSE YOU’RE TOO BUSY BEING GRYFFINDOR’S GOLDEN BOY!”

“Miss Potter! What on earth are you-” she faltered when she saw Harry as well, looking equally as angry. “Are you two arguing?”

“No, Professor,” Lydia replied, “We’re fine,”

James appeared after this and took over, but Minerva stood there for a while, gripping onto the bannister as students flooded back into the castle, animatedly talking about what had happened at the match. They jostled her slightly as they passed, but she paid them no attention for, once again, she was mourning the family that should have been.

As she walked back to her office, her mind working in overdrive, she wondered if Lydia would have been sorted into Gryffindor if her parents had lived. She wondered how different Harry and Lydia would have been. Would they have argued more? Minerva often thought that they were closer because of the tragedy that had plagued their lives.

That year ended in even more tragedy for them. The death of Albus Dumbledore shocked the entire Wizarding Community, but the death of James Potter physically hurt Minerva. On the morning of his funeral, Minerva watched Harry and Lydia closely. She watched them both try and hold themselves together, but when she saw Lydia grab Harry’s hand, Minerva herself almost burst into tears.

At his wake, there was a definite finality in the way that the two of them said goodbye to their classmates, and Minerva knew that she might never see them again. And so she mourned for the family that should have been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just love Minerva McGonagall and everyday I thank the Lord that out of all the deaths in Harry Potter, she was never one. 
> 
> If McGonagall had been killed in the last book I might have lost my mind more than I already did. 
> 
> (Also Hagrid, thank-you for never killing Hagrid JKR) 
> 
> -E.


	5. Found Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dumbledore's Army is found out. 
> 
> It's not nearly as much as a disaster as it should have been.

If Lydia had known that the best way to get the DA's full and undivided attention would be to to start teaching them Patronuses, they probably would have started doing them weeks ago. Even Zacharias Smith had nothing bad to say though that was probably because he was stood in the corner, his face screwed up in concentration as he produced feeble wisps of smoke from his wand. The entire room was bathed in light as Patronuses swam through the air but, as Harry pointed out, it wouldn't be this easy when face to face with a real Dementor.

"Don't be such a killjoy!" Cho said brightly, watching her swan Patronus glide around the room in the last lesson before the Easter Holidays, "They're so pretty!"

Neville was having trouble; he was stood in the corner of the room away from the rest of the group. Feeling as though she could make a fool of herself in front of Neville, she left Ron and Hermione to keep on trying and joined Neville. He was trying so hard that his face was actually shiny with sweat and she felt as though he might have been holding his wand that little bit too tight.

"I can't do it!" Neville exclaimed, "Nothing's happening!"

She gently put a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. "You need to think of a happy memory. And it might not be an obviously happy memory. For example, the memory I think of is when I woke up in the hospital wing after Voldemort came back,"

Neville frowned at her.

"It's not necessarily happy because I don't want him to be back, but it's a happy memory because I realised how many people were on my side - Harry, Ron, Hermione, McGonagall, Mr and Mrs Weasley, George...even Snape...watch," she held up her wand, "Expecto Patronum!"

A doe burst from the end of her wand and sauntered around the room.

"See?" She said, "It doesn't have to be a memory of laughter. It can be anything,"

The door opening and closing again caught her attention. Leaving Neville to keep on trying, Lydia made her way over to the door and looked around, but she couldn't work out who had either come in or left. That was until someone started tugging on her robes and she looked down. It was Dobby the House Elf peering up at her.

"Hi Dobby!" She said, "What are you - what's wrong?"

His eyes were wide with terror and he seemed to be shaking. Harry hurried over to them and silence fell across the room. The last few Patronuses that people had managed to produce had disappeared. The room suddenly seemed a lot more darker than it had been before.

"Miss Potter...Dobby has come to warn you..." He squeaked, "The other House Elves told me not to..."

At once, he ran head first at the wall. Harry automatically leapt forward and yanked him backw. Somewhere behind her, Lydia was sure that she heard Hermione whisper something about house-elf rights.

"What happened, Dobby?" Harry asked, gripping hold of him.

"Harry Potter...she...she...she,"

"Who's 'she', Dobby?" Harry asked, though Lydia was quite sure who 'she' was.

"Is it Umbridge?" Lydia asked.

Dobby nodded.

"Is she coming now?" Asked Harry.

Dobby let out a howl that Lydia took as a yes. Harry straightened up and looked around at the motionless, terrified people standing motionless.

"WELL, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" He bellowed, "RUN?"

They all pelted towards the exit at once, forming a scrum at the door. Lydia stepped back and stuck her wand in her hair, hurrying people along. George took up the rear of the group and she gestured for him to go, not wanting him to get into any more trouble than they probably already were because of him. Lydia grabbed Harry and pulled him along just as he picked Dobby up and huried towards the door.

"Come on!" Hermione shrieked, sticking her head back through the door.

"Hermione, go!" Harry yelled.

"There's a girls bathroom just up the stairs, you go to the Owlery and see Hedwig," Lydia said, shoving Harry away from her.

He nodded at her and took off in the opposite direction. Lydia took the stairs two steps at a time and almost made it to the bathroom just as Professor Umbridge rounded the corner, an evil grin spreading across her face. Lydia froze just inches away from the bathroom door. If she had just been two seconds quicker...

"Miss Potter! I think it's time you come with me!" Umbridge trilled, gripping her wrist and pulling her back down the stairs, "Now, where is your brother?"

"I don't know," Lydia said, "He might be in Gryffindor Tower,"

"Didn't I tell you to not tell lies?" She asked in that horrible high voice.

"AAARGH!"

They arrived back outside the Room of Requiremnt just as Harry fell spectacularly. He skidded along on his front for a good six feet until he crashed into a suit of armour. Someone laughed as he rolled over onto his back. Lydia spotted Malfoy concealed behind a vase shaped as a dragon.

"You!" Lydia yelled, "You're nothing but a - a -Flobberworm, Malfoy!" It was the best insult that she could come up with and she regretted saying it the moment it came out of her mouth.

Umbridge, however, shoved Lydia out of the way and marched over to Harry, hauling him to his feet.

"Excellent, Draco, Excellent! We have them both! Fifty points to Slytherin," She beamed. "Hop along now and see if you can find any others. I think the I shall take these two to the Headmaster. Come along now, Miss Potter. Your father is already upstairs, how terribly disappointed he must be in you both,"

Lydia wanted to tell her that James used to break at least twenty school rules a day when he attended Hogwarts, but stayed silent. As she walked, fear began to set in. There was no way they would ever get out of this one without being expelled. Since first year, they had broken far too many school rules for even Dumbledore to save them this time. Hermione would be expelled before she could even take her exams and Mrs Weasley would be furious that Ron, Fred, George and Ginny would put their future in danger over some silly group. It had been Seamus's very first meeting and Neville was getting so good...

"Fizzing Whizbee," Umbridge said when they got to the stone gargoyle. It leapt aside and they ascended the moving stone staircase. Lydia glanced at Harry who shrugged halfheartedly. He seemed to have accepted their fate. Lydia was determined not go down without shouting at at least three people.

The office was full of people. Dumbledore was sat behind his desk, his expression serene. Professor McGonagall was stood next to him, looking very tense. James was stood leaning against one of Dumbledore's many bookcases, drumming his wand against his thigh. He looked up when they came in and, for the first time, didn't smile. The Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was rocking backwards and forwards on his toes, looking extremely happy. Kingsley Shacklebolt and a wizard who Lydia didn't recognise were stood either side of the door as though guarding it and the freckled Percy Weasley hovered beside the Minister, a quill and a scroll of parchment in his hands. Lydia fought the urge to swear at him. The portraits of previous heads of Hogwarts were not pretending to be asleep, but wide awake and attentive.

"Well," Fudge said, looking at them both, "Well, well, well..."

"Well what?" Lydia snapped, mustering the dirtiest look she could.

"He was heading back to Gryffindor Tower whilst she was running to the girls bathrooms," said Umbridge.

"Well, I expect you know why you're here?"

Lydia noticed Dumbledore move his head a fraction of an inch to each side and Lydia spoke before Harry could.

"I don't know. Have you passed another Educational Decree that makes it illegal to go to the bathroom now?" Lydia asked, "Becuase that is definitely a violation of human rights. Almost a cruel as your new methods of detention,"

McGonagall gasped but Lydia was sure that she saw Dumbledore give her the tiniest wink.

"I beg your pardon?" Fudge said.

"No," Harry said, firmly. "We don't know why we're here,"

"You don't know?"

"That's what we just said,"

Fudge looked incredulously around the room. Lydia took the moment to glance at James who nodded his head at her.

"So you have no idea," said Fudge, "why Professor Umbridge has brought you to this office? You are not aware that you have broken any school rules?"

"School rules?" said Harry, "No."

"Ministry Decrees?" Fudge asked, angrily.

"Honestly, Minister, there's too many to keep up with you," Lydia said blankly. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She wasn't entirely sure why they were lying - there was very little chance they were going to get out of this.

"So, it's news to you that an illegal student organisation has been discovered in this school?" Fudge asked.

"Yes," Harry said.

"Quite a surprise, actually," Lydia put in.

"I think, Minister," said Umbrdige, "we might make better progress if I fetch our informant?"

"Yes, yes, do that, Dolores,"

There were several minutes in which no one looked at each other. Lydia was too busy being surprised that they weren't already packing their trunks to take any notice of anything going on around her. The only sound was James drumming his wand against his leg. Then, the door opened and Umbridge returned followed by one of Cho's friends who had come with her to the meeting at the Hog's Head, Marietta.

"Don't be shy, dear," Umbridge said, patting her on the back, "The Minister is very proud of you,"

"Yes, yes, I know your mother!" Fudge said heartily, "Well, come on, now, dear, don't be shy. Let's hear what you have to - Merlins Beard!"

Marietta raised her head and Fudge leapt backwards. Not that Lydia blamed him. She clapped her hands over her mouth as Marietta wailed and pulled her robes over her face for, stamped across her cheeks and nose she was disfigured by a series of purple us rules that formed the word 'SNEAK'. Hermione had not been lying when she said that it would makee Eloise Midgeon's acne look like a couple of cute freckles. No one would ever laugh at her again once they saw Marietta.

"Never mind that now, dear." Umbridge said patiently, "Tell him what happened,"

But Marietta gave another wail and hid behind her robes again, sobbing.

"Oh, very well, I'll tell him," snapped Umbridge, "Well, Minister, Miss Edgecombe came to my office shortly after diner this evenin and told me she had something to tell me. She said that if I proceeded to the seventh floor, I would find a secret room called the Room of Requirement and inside, I would find out something to my advantage. When I questioned her further, she told me there would be some kind of meeting there. Unfortunately at this point he hex," She waved impatiently at Marietta's face, "came into operation and upon catching sight of her face in my mirror the girl became too distressed to tell me any more,"

'Well, it was very brave of you coming to tell Professor Umbridge, my dear," Fudge said gently, "Can you tell me what happened at this meeting? Who was there?"

But she still wouldn't speak.

"Haven't we got a counter-jinx for this?" Fudge asked impatiently.

Umbridge shook her head. "No, I could find one," Lydia felt a rush of pride in Hermione's jinxing abilities. "But I can take the story up from here. You will remember, Minister, that I told you about these two have a meeting with a number of students in Hogsmeade last October?

"The purpose of this meeting was to persuade them to join an illegal society, whose aim was to learn spells and curses the Ministry has decided are inappropriate-"

"Such a society was not illegal at the time," Dumbledore interrupted, "Neither of them were breaking any school rules at the time. Do continue,"

"That's all very fine, Headmaster," Umbridge said, smiling sweetly, "But we are now nearly sixth months on from the introduction of Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four. The meeting that was happening tonight, was illegal,'

"Do you have any evidence that any meetings have taken place in those six months?" Dumbledore asked.

"Evidence?" cried Umbridge. "We have all the evidence that we need here!"

"Really?" Dumbledore asked, raising his eyebrows. "I was under the impression that she was merely reporting a meeting tonight."

"Miss Edgecombe," said Umbridge at once, "tell us how long these meetings have been going on, dear. You can simply nod or shake our head, I'm sure that won't make the spots worse. Have they been happening regularly over the last sixth months?"

Lydia closed her eyes. This was it. There was no way they would be able to wiggle their way out of this one. Lydia forced herself to open her eyes and looked over at Marietta. Only her eyes were visible over the top of the her robes and Lydia thought they looked blank. She was going to point this out to someone but then, to her utter amazement, Marietta shook her head.

"What do you mean by shaking your head, dear?" Umbridge said.

'I would have thought her meaning was quite clear," said Professor McGonagall harshly, "there have been no secretl meetings for the past sixth months. Is that correct, Miss Edgecombe?"

Marietta nodded.

"But there was a meeting tonight!" said Umbridge furiously. "There was a meeting, Miss Edgecombe, you told me about it! The Potter spawn were the leaders-"

"Oi!" James yelled, "Those are my kids you're talking about!"

"-The Potter children are the leaders and they organised it! Why are you shaking your head, girl?"

"Well," Professor McGonagall said coldly, "When a person shakes their head, it usually means 'no'. So unless Miss Edgecombe is using a form of sign-language as yet unknown to humans-"

Professor Umbridge sized Marietta, pulled her round to face her and began shaking her very hard. A second later, Dumbledore was on his feet with his wand raised. Kingsley started forwards and Umbridge leapt from Marietta.

"I cannot allow you to manhandle my students, Dolores," Dumbledore said, looking angry for the first time.

"You want to calm yourself, Madam Umbridge," Fudge said in a slow voice, "You don't want to get yourself into trouble, now,"

Marietta was standing exactly where Umbridge had released her. It was as though nothing had happened. She was still stood in the middle of the room, her robes still brought up to her eyes. Lydia would have felt sorry for her if it weren't the fact that she had sold them out of Umbridge.

"Dolores," Fudge said, clearing his throat. "The meeting tonight - the one we knew definitely happene-"

"Yes," said Umbridge, pulling herself together, "yes...well, Miss Edgecombe tipped me off and I proceeded at once to the seventh floor, accompanied by a certain trustworthy students, so as to catch those in the meeting red-handed. It appears that they were aware of my arrival, however, because when we reached the seventh floor they were running in every direction. We have their names here-"

Lydia glanced at Harry as Umbridge held up the piece of paper that they had all signed.

"The moment I saw the Potters names on the list, I knew what we were dealing with," she said softly.

"Excellent," said Fudge, a smile spreading across his face, "excellent, Dolores. And...by thunder..." He looked up at Dumbledore, "See what they've named themselves? Dumbledore's Army,"

"Well, the game is up," Dumbledore said, simply. "I recruited these students. Tonight was meant to be the first meeting. I know see that I was a mistake inviting Miss Edgecombe here,"

Marietta nodded. Fudge looked like he was going to explode. McGonagall and Kinglsey looked at each other, they clearly hadn't been expecting this. James had straightened up and was now looking between Dumbledore, Lydia and Harry.

"So you have been plotting against me!" Fudge yelled.

"That's right," Dumbledore said cheerfully.

"No!" Harry shouted.

James shook his head at him and McGonagall widened her eyes warningly.

"No - Professor Dumbledore-!"

"Be quiet, Harry, or I am afraid you will have to leave my office," said Dumbledore calmly.

"Yes, shut up, Potter!" Fudge barked, "Well, well, well! I expected to come here and expell those two but now I-"

"Instead you can arrest me," said Dumbledore smiling, "It's like losing a Knut and finding a Galleon,"

"Weasley!" Fudge cried, "Weasley, have you written anything down!"

Lydia jumped as Percy cried, "Yes, sir, I think so!" She had forgotten that he was there. His nose was splattered with ink from the speed of his note taking.

"Send a copy to the Prophet! If we send a fast owl we might make the morning edition!" Fudge said joyfully. Lydia had to jump out of the way as Percy dashed from the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Fudge turned back to Dumbledore, "You will be escorted back to the Minsitry, where you will be formally charged, and then sent to Azkaban to await trial!"

"And that is the little snag I thought we might hit," Dumbledore said calmly.

"Snag? What snag?"

"It's just that you seemed to think that I would...come quietly. I have not intention of doing such a thing. I will not being to Azkaban, there really is no point. I could easily break out but I can think of a whole host of other things that I would much rather be doing," Dumbledore said quite casually.

The wizard who Lydia didn't know gave Fudge a reassuring nod and walked towards Dumbledore, his wand raised.

"Don't be silly, Dawlish," said Dumbledore kindly, "I'm sure you are an excellent Auror, but if you attem to er...bring me in by force...I will have to hurt you,"

"So," sneered Fudge after Dawlish just stood blinking foolishly at Dumbledore, "you intend to take us all on single-handedly?"

"He will not be single-handed!" Professor McGonagall said loudly, raising her wand.

"Oh yes he will, Minerva!" Dumbledore said harshly, "Hogwarts needs you!"

"Hogwarts doesn't need me though, does it?" James said, raising his wand.

"But you're children do, James!" Dumbledore said.

"Enough of this rubbish!" Fudge said, "Dawlish! Shacklebolt! Take him!"

A streak of silver light flashed around the room and there was a bang like a gunshot. Lydia saw James bound across the room and grab her and Harry, dragging them to the ground. Next to her, McGongall had grabbed Marietta and pushed them down next to her. There was another flash of light and several of the portraits cried and she heard Fawkes screech. Through the dust that was rising up around them, Lydia saw a dark figure fall to the ground. There was a shriek and a thud and then...silence.

Coughing in the dust, Lydia looked around. James was crouched in front of her and Hary, he was completely covered in dust and his cheek was cut. Professor McGonagall was crouched next to Marietta who still looked like she hadn't taken any notice of anything that was happening around her.

"Are you all right?" Dumbledore asked, he had walked towards them through the dust.

"Yes!" McGonagall said, standing up. She tried to get Marietta to stand up with her but she looked like she would much rather stay on the ground.

James struggled to his feet, pulling Harry and Lydia with him. "Where will you go?" He asked, "Grimmauld Place?"

"Oh no," Dumbledore said, "I am not leaving to go into hiding. Fudge will soon wish he'd never made me leave, you'll see,"

"Professor Dumbledore..." Harry began.

"Harry, listen to me," He said, rather urgently, "You must study Occulmency as hard as you can, do you understand? And, Lydia, if anything like what has happened to Harry happens to you, you must try and empty your mind. Maybe ask Professor Snape for lessons of your own.."

Behind them, Dawlish started to stir. Dumbledore seized Harry and Lydia's wrists, "Close your minds..."

Fawkes circled the office and swooped low over Dumbledore. He released Lydia and Harry and raised his hand, grasping the phoenix's long golden tale. There was a flash of fire and the pair of them were gone.

"Where is he?" Fudge yelled, jumping to his feet.

"Well, he can't have Disapparated!" Umbridge cried, "You can't do it from inside the school-"

"The stairs!" Dawlish yelled, running out of the office. Kingsley followed him. Fudge hesitated and then turned to McGonagall.

"Well, Minerva," he said nastily, "I think this is the end of your friend Dumbledore,"

"You think so, do you?" Professor McGonagall asked.

Fudge didn't seem to hear her. He looked around at the wrecked office. A few of the portraits hissed at him. One or two even made rude hand gestures.

"Get these lot off to bed," Fudge said, waving his hand dismissively.

James nudged Lydia and Harry and they left the office quickly. They walked in silence for until they got to the stairs in the Entrance Hall. When Lydia made to go down to the Slytherin common room, James stopped her, looking grave.

"Listen to me, both of you," he said, "Now that Dumbledore is gone, Umbridge is going to have free range on the school. She'll be able to do what she wants,"

"Can't wait," Lydia muttered.

"Lyds, this is serious. She'll do anything to get you both expelled. You need to keep you head down, revise for your exams and don't snap at Umbridge, no matter how much you want to," James said.

"You wouldn't have stayed quiet," Harry pointed out.

"No, I wouldn't," James admitted, "but we were living in different times. Yes, we were in a war but Voldemort was out in the open then and I wasn't a Child who Lived. You two have got to play a different game," he sighed, "Just...just promise me that you won't do anything that me, Sirius and Remus would have done,"

"I promise," Lydia said quickly.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, yeah...I promise,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank-you for reading! 
> 
> This was actually one of my favourite parts of the fifth book!
> 
> -E.


	6. Lydia Potter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, if you've not read past the Battle of Hogwarts stuff in the Children who Lived fic, then you should probably read it because if not then it'll just spoil it for you. Unless you don't care about spoilers, I don't know. 
> 
> Anyway, this is how I almost ended it. But I didn't because it upset me too much.

“The girl is in Slytherin.” Snape said, “she is quiet and keeps to herself. I don’t think she’s made friends with anyone in Slytherin House. The boy, on the the other hand, has arrogance enough to match that of his father,”

“Lydia being sorted in Slytherin is...curious,” Dumbledore said slowly, “I expected them both to be in Gryffindor. I assumed that they would go wherever the other did,”

The scene dissolved again and they were in Dumbledore’s office again but on a different day. Snape was stood on the other side of office, half stood in the shadows.

“It is essential that when the time comes, they know an important piece of information,” Dumbledore said.

“What?” Snape asked.

“In order to defeat the Dark Lord...one of them must die,” Dumbledore said, “when Lily sacrificed herself for her children, the course rebounded and part of Lord Voldemort’s soul latched onto one of them,”

“Which one?”

“I believe it is Lydia,” he said, “the reason she never had to have occlumency lessons was because Voldemort was already a part of her and she never knew any different - it affected Harry differently because he’d never known what it was like to be connected to Voldemort. Over time, she learned to deal with it,”

“Does she know?”

Dumbledore shook his head.

“No, Severus. At the end of last year she told me that she would rather kill herself than hunt Voldemort,” he sighed, “and I’m worried that that is exactly what she would do if I told her,” he paused, “you’ve known her long enough to know that if she found this out today, she would kill herself before the day is out. She is rather...headstrong,”

“But if that is the only way Voldemort can be defeated-“

“It is integral that it is Voldemort who kills her,” Dumbledore said, “it has to be him and the exact right moment,”

“So, you’ve been raising her like a pig for slaughter? You’ve been planning to destroy the Potter family again? Harry would be distraught-“

“Severus, don’t tell me that after all this time you’ve come to care for them?”

“Not them,” he raised his wand, “ Expecto Patronum ,” Like when Lydia cast the spell, a Doe burst from the end of his wand and sauntered around the room.

“Lily...” Dumbledore said, “After all this time?”

“Always,”

And now Snape stood again in the headmaster’s study as Phineas Nigellus came hurrying into his portrait.

“Headmaster! They are camping in the Forest of Dean! The Mudblood – ”

“Do not use that word!”

“ – the Granger girl, then, mentioned the place as she opened her bag and I heard her!”

“Good. Very good!” cried the portrait of Dumbledore behind the headmaster’s chair. “Now, Severus, the sword! Do not forget that it must be taken under conditions of need and valor – and he must not know that you give it! If Voldemort should read Harry’s mind and see you acting for him – ”

“I know,” said Snape curtly. He approached the portrait of Dumbledore and pulled at its side. It swung forward, revealing a hidden cavity behind it from which he took the sword of Gryffindor.

“And you still aren’t going to tell me why it’s so important to give them the sword?” said Snape as he swung a traveling cloak over his robes.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Dumbledore’s portrait. “He will know what to do with it. And Severus, be very careful, they may not take kindly to your appearance after George Weasley’s mishap. Lydia in particular. She would take great joy in cursing you, I am sure,”

Snape turned at the door.

“Don’t worry, Dumbledore,” he said coolly. “I have a plan…”

The scene changed again and this time it showed Lydia walking through the forest, following the Doe. Snape lurked in the trees, watching her go.

Lydia gasped and she was suddenly back in Dumbledore’s office. She staggered back from the pensieve, her heart beating out of control. Harry stood a little way away from her, his mouth open slightly. She stood and stared at him, trying to find the right words to say but they had never been in a worse situation.

All she had ever wanted to do was survive. When they were chasing the Philosophers Stone and they came face to face with Voldemort again, she had fought for her survival. When they were in the Chamber of Secrets and the sword presented itself to her, she used it in hopes it would help them survive. When she came face to face with Sirius Black, and thought he would kill them, all she had wanted to was survive. During the Triwizard Tournament, she poured over books and studied for her survival. She and Harry lead Dumbledore’s Army so that they could survive the war. In her sixth year, she had put all that behind her because that was the best way for her to survive. But she was never meant to survive. She had been raised a soldier who would go on a mission that she was never meant to come back from. Now, she had to do what she had to do so everyone else could survive.

“Remember,” Lydia said, fighting to keep her voice calm, “once he kills me, the only thing left is to kill the snake and then you go and kill him, alright? Don’t try and kill him before the Snake,”

“I know, Lyds,” He said, “I know,”

Lydia nodded. “Right. Well...”

“You’re allowed to cry,” he said, “Merlin, Lydia, you don’t need to be brave now. You don’t need to be the emotionless Slytherin you are around people. It’s just me,”

Lydia looked at her brother. He had been the one person who had always been there for her. They had walked into Hogwarts hand in hand, and now she had to walk out alone. He wrapped her in a hug and she allowed herself to sob into his chest as the reality of the situation set in. She would have to die but deep down, she had always known that it would go this way. She looked at Harry and knew that he understood that too.

“Tell Ron and Hermione-“

“I know,”

“And George-“

“I will,” he promised.

“I told him I’d be right back...” she whispered, “I can’t go and speak to him. I’ll never go if not-“

Harry wiped her eyes. “He’ll understand. Once he knows why you’re doing what you have to...”

“I don’t want to,” she whispered and she dissolved into tears again. “Harry, I’m really, really scared,”

A small sob escaped his lips and he bit down in his lip. “If I could go instead of you-“

“I wouldn’t let you,” She said, “the world needs Harry Potter more than it needs Lydia Potter,”

“That’s not true,”

Lydia sniggered, “Do I have to remind you that you’re always going to be Gryffindors Golden Boy? Mr Star Seeker...”

“Wait..the snitch,” he took the golden snitch out of his pocket and pressed it to his lips. It opened, revealing a small black stone. “The resurrection stone...” he went to turn it over but Lydia stopped him.

“No, not here,” she said, “Dumbledore left it for you,”

Harry shook his head and pressed it into her palm.

“I don’t want it. Take it with you. Use it. Whatever,” he shook his head, “it sends people mad, doesn’t it?”

Lydia nodded and closed her fist around it. She wiped her eyes and tried to keep herself calm, for Harry’s sake. He reached into his jacket and handed her the Invisibility Cloak.

“I don’t want it,” he said, “I won’t need it after tonight,”

She took the Cloak off him, staring down at it. It was amazing how one piece of fabric could hold so many important memories.

“It’s like Dumbledore said, isn’t it - to the well organised mind, death is but the next great adventure,” she said quietly.

Fearing that if she hugged him again she would never let go, Lydia tried to smile at him but the muscles in her face seemed to have stopped working. With surprisingly calm hands, she opened the door of the office and tried not to focus on the wailing sobs she heard when the door closed behind her.

Once she reached the end of the corridor, she pulled out the Marauders Map and pulled on the cloak, hoping that they would be able to get them from her once it was all done.

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” More tears sprang to her eyes as she watched the map come to life. “Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are proud to present the Marauders Map,” Lydia wondered what would happen if the school-age Marauders could see them now, if they could see how different everything had become.

As though she was sneaking back to the Common Room as if out past curfew, Lydia scanned the map, making sure everyone was where they should be and quickly set off towards the forbidden forest. Walking through Hogwarts at this time was strange. And it wasn’t because she felt older than she had ever felt before, or because it was broken and crumbling; but because this was her home. She felt as though she had been born here, and now she was going to die.

Ahead of her, she saw Daphne slowly walking towards her and Lydia acted without thinking. She whipped the Cloak off and ran over to her.

“You’re handing yourself over, aren’t you?” Daphne said before Lydia could say anything, “I’m sure there’s some noble reason behind it? There usually is,”

“I- I have to. It’s the only way we can win,” Lydia said, her voice shaking slightly.

Daphne shook her head, “You really are the bravest person that I know,”

“Listen to me,” Lydia said, “After...after it happens, I don’t know how Harry, Ron and Hermione will react to it and I don’t want them to forget that they need to kill the snake,”

“What?” Daphne asked, frowning.

“The snake. Voldemort’s snake,” Lydia said hurriedly, “just make sure the snake is dead before you try and kill him, alright?”

Daphne nodded and for a few moments, they stood staring at each other. Their friendship was still new and quite strange, and Lydia felt as though she had never appreciated it before. She had never appreciated what it meant to have a friend in the Slytherin common room when everyone else had taken an immediate dislike to her.

“See you,” Lydia whispered, knowing she would never be able to put any of this into words. Pulling the Invisibility Cloak back over herself, she turned away from Daphne and carried on.

As she walked through the corridors, there was a distant echo of laughter and Ron, Hermione and Harry were walking besides her. Ron and Hermione were bickering about something unimportant whilst Harry sniggered at them. It was painfully clear that Ron had lost the argument but he was determined to win. Hermione, on the other hand, knew she had won the argument but wasn’t going to back down any time soon.

George passed them and winked at her. She grinned back and carried on walking, diving out of the way as a group of Slytherins chased a Gryffindor down the corridor. Their hair had been dyed bright pink and their ears were the size of dinner plates. Ron and Hermione actually abandoned their argument to watch in amusement as the Slytherins fell to the floor, their ears now so big that they couldn’t move.

They arrived outside and Lydia automatically turned in the direction of the Quidditch pitch. In the darkness, she could just about see the goal posts. She paused for a moment and closed her eyes. She could feel the wind whipping her hair and her robes as she raced for the goal posts, the Quaffle under her arm, she only had to beat the Keeper now and-

She heard someone sniffle behind her and she turned around, holding onto the Invisibility Cloak. George was sat on the stone steps of the Entrance Hall, wiping his eyes. She was frozen in a trance, staring at him and trying her best to not think about how much pain she was probably going to put him through.

“George? George? Oh, there you are,” it was Charlie. He looked tired as he dropped next to his brother and put his arm around him. “Everyone’s in the Great Hall-“

“Have you seen Lydia?” George asked, his voice thick with tears. “she went to Dumbledore’s office with Harry but I’ve not seen her since,”

Charlie stared at him with tears in his eyes.

“Harry just told us, George,” he said quietly, “oh, I’m so sorry...but, she’s gone to Voldemort. She’s had to give herself up-“

“NO!” George yelled. He jumped up and launched himself towards the Forbidden Forest, “LYDIA!”

Charlie leapt up and dragged George back towards him. Lydia clapped her hands over her mouth and backed away from them. George fought against his brother, but Charlie managed to push him to the floor.

“If you go after her, you’ll only make it harder for her,” Charlie said, “And he’ll just kill you too. Do you want to put mum and dad through that?”

“I don’t have anything - not without them,” George sobbed.

“George, listen to me. These next few months are going to be really hard, but you have to get through it. For them,” Charlie said. He hauled George up and put his arm around his shoulders, “come on. Let's get away from here,”

Lydia watched as they walked away from her. And she had never felt so lonely in her life. The resurrection stone seemed to vibrate in her hands and, against her better judgement, she turned it over in her hands three time and the forest around her lit up as if by a thousand Patronuses.

Four people walked towards her: James Potter, Lily Evans, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. They didn't look like the echoes that she and Harry had seen in the graveyard all those years ago, but real people. Lily was a little taller than Lydia. Her red hair was piled into a bun on top of her head with her wand in it, in the way that Lydia used to in school. She was smiling, albeit a little sadly. For the first time, Lydia truly understood why people always said that they had the same eyes. Sirius looked the same as he had done the last she had seen him, though a lot healthier. He had the same bright, mischievous grin and was still effortlessly handsome. James looked at her with more sadness in his eyes than the other two, perhaps it was because he had had the chance to get to know her and then it had been taken away from them. Remus looked the youngest she had ever seen him. There were no lines on his face and his robes did not look shabby at all.

"You've been so brave, sweetheart," said Lily, holding out her hand. Lydia rushed forward and tried to take it, but she couldn't.

"Does it hurt? Dying?" Lydia asked, wishing that she could have asked the question in a less childish way.

"Quicker and easier than falling asleep," Sirius said, winking at her.

"Why are you here?" Lydia asked.

"We never left," James whispered, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"I never wanted any of you to die for me. I never wanted this," Lydia cried, "And, Dad you'd got a second chance and-"

"The two years I spent with you and Harry was better than I could have asked for," James said, "I wouldn't change it for the world,"

“And, Remus, your son-“

“Will know that his mother and father died so that he can live in a better world,” Remus said.

"You'll stay with me?"

"Until the end," Lily promised.

"And he won't be able to see you?" Lydia asked.

"No. We're here, you see." Sirius said, pointing at Lydia's heart.

Pulling herself together and wiping the tears from her eyes, Lydia Potter straightened her back and walked through the Forbidden Forest, her path lit by her protectors. The Forest was the calmest and the quietest that Lydia had ever seen it. No creatures rustled in the bushes and there was no distant sound of Centaurs hooves in the distance.

They finally came to a clearing. Lord Voldemort stood in the middle of it with his back to Lydia. His Death Eaters were stood around him, most of them looked bored. Lydia held her head higher and, with a jolt, realised that Hagrid was tied to a tree with Bellatrix stood next to him. She felt a sudden burst of anger and dropped the resurrection stone to the floor. James, Lily, Remus and Sirius disappeared from next to her and the clearing was bathed in darkness again.

“My Lord...I don’t think they are coming.” One of the Death Eaters rasped.

“I’m here.” Lydia said as loudly as she could. She stuck her wand back in her bun.

“Lydia? No! What are yer doin’?” Hagrid roared, “Go back!”

Lydia couldn’t bring herself at him. She realised that she had never told him how important he was to her, how much she appreciated him and everything that he had done for her over the years. Her heart breaking in two, she locked eyes with Voldemort who had now turned to face her. The more he looked at her, the more her scar hurt and the less she cared.

“Where’s your brother?” Voldemort asked.

“He’s back at the castle.” Lydia told him. “But forget him. I’m here.” She paused. “I’m not even going to fight back.” She held up her hands to show that her wand wasn’t in her hand. “Let’s get it over and done with, then.”

Lord Voldemort regarded her for a moment. An image of Harry flashed to the front of her mind as there was a flash of green light and everything went dark.

—-

When Lydia awoke, she was alone.

She was lay flat on her back in a blindingly white place, mist covering the floor. She looked down at her hands and frowned, they were not cut or bruised or covered in dirt like they had been just moments before, but clean and unblemished. She could not even see the scars from Umbridge’s quills. There was not a single part of her that wanted to move of the floor, and she was more than happy to never move again. She could definitely make a life for herself here.

When she attended muggle primary school, they learned about heaven. Even at such a young age, and having already lost so much, Lydia had found it hard to believe that such a place of peace could actually exist. Now, at the age of seventeen, she couldn't even be bothered to entertain the idea.

But now she was confused for this was kind of place that people imagined their loved ones went when they died.

“Oh shit, I'm dead,” she muttered.

It took her a few minutes to work out what had exactly happened. It came rushing back to her soon enough. George’s sobs echoed through her mind, mixed up with Harry’s when they had hugged for the last time. She wondered what he was doing now. She hoped that whatever it was, it wasn't something stupid but then she remembered that this was her brother that she was thinking about, so he must have been doing something ridiculously stupid. She just hoped that it was being supervised by Hermione who would be able to talk some sense into him.

She squeezed her eyes shut and as she did so, she remembered the glow of Lord Voldemort's eyes as he looked at her. She remembered watching him raise his wand and cast the spell that had haunted her for years. Once again, the green flash of the Killing Curse seemed to engulf her very being and it was finally over.

Feeling as though someone had struck her in the chest with a hot iron, she pushed herself off the ground and looked around, only growing more confused because she was in Kings Cross Station. Except, it wasn't Kings Cross because it was too clean and she couldn't see any trains. There was no sounds of trains rushing down the tracks or frantic parents trying to keep an eye on their children as they ran riot. She needn’t worry about anything else anymore.

Her chest continued to throb and she looked down at it, pulling the neck of her t-shirt away from her, revealing a new scar. It was much bigger than any of the others she had and, like the one on her forehead, it was shaped like a lightning bolt. It ran from down the side of her neck and down her chest. Lord Voldemort really hadn't held back this time. She raised a hand to the scar on her forehead, but it did not seem to be there, confusing her further.

Slowly, she pushed herself off the floor and looked around, thinking she had never been in a stranger or more peaceful place. A low moan behind her caught her attention and she turned around, a scream almost escaping her lips when she saw what was lay on the floor. At first, she thought it was a child but it was too ugly to be anything slightly human.

“Lydia,”

Her head snapped up and she saw James and Lily stood a little way away from her. Behind them, Sirius and Remus were hand in hand, smiling.

Lydia took a tentative step forward, looking, for the first time, at her family all together. A single tear rolled down her cheek.

“Am I done?” Lydia asked.

Lily nodded and Lydia felt herself relax for the first time since she was eleven years old.

—-

The door of the Headmaster’s study swung shut behind his sister and Harry fell to the floor. He lay curled up there for what felt like hours, sobbing. It was not fair. She shouldn't have had to die. He felt a sudden rush of anger towards Dumbledore. Why had he never been upfront with them? Why had he never sat them down and explained exactly what was going to happen in their life? He knew every little detail about how to bring Voldemort down and yet he thought that his best bet was to just let them work it out? He had rested the fate of Wizarding World on the shoulders of two seventeen year olds without so much of a prod in the right direction.

He finally pulled himself off the floor and turned to face the door, suddenly rooted to the spot. What was he going to tell people? What was he going to tell Ron and Hermione? What was he going to tell George? The happiest he had ever seen his sister was after he had not-quite proposed to her and Harry still remembered her telling him that George had asked her to the Yule Ball. She had tried to play it casual, but he could tell that she was beyond excited to go.

Without realising it, he had walked all the way from the Headmaster’s office and down to the Entrance Hall. Hermione and Ron were sat on the stairs, not speaking and Harry knew that there was no way to avoid them. He gently tapped Ron on the shoulder and he turned around.

“Harry! Where's - where's Lydia?” he asked, standing up and looking over his shoulder as though she was hiding behind her, “Is she...is she still in Dumbledore's office?”

Hermione gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth, tears cascading down her cheeks.

“She's gone, hasn't she?”

Harry nodded.

Ron groaned and sank back down to the ground, his head in his hands. Hermione stood up and faced Harry, shaking her head.

“Why?”

“She had to,” Harry said, “It's the only way we could win,” he halfheartedly explained what had happened, though he didn't think that either Ron or Hermione were listening properly. Harry wasn't even paying attention to what he was saying.

Together, they walked into the Great Hall. The Weasleys descended on them almost immediately. George wasn't there, and Harry was not sure whether or not this was a good thing or not.

“Where's Lydia?” Bill asked, “she hasn't - she hasn't gone to him, has she?”

Once again, Harry nodded. Saying the word yes in response to this question made it feel too real.

“I’ll go and find George,” Charlie whispered, “He needs to find out from someone who isn't Voldemort,”

After a few minutes, being in the Hall with everyone got too much. Harry paced up and down outside the doors, news of what Lydia had done had quickly spread and Harry watched people react to it. Some were crying whilst others stared blankly at the walls. Ron and Hermione sat together, Hermione resting her head on his shoulder. The sight warmed Harry’s heart despite everything. Lydia had been right. It was about time. The other Weasley’s were sat together with the exception of George. He was sat on the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall, staring at the floor. Harry watched him for a few moments, wondering what on earth he was meant to say to him. Between losing Fred and Lydia, Harry wondered if he would ever be the same. Harry turned away from George and he saw Professor McGonagall stood in the doors of the Great Hall, her hands clasped in front of her. He knew that ever since Lydia had been sorted into Slytherin and became a bit of an outcast, McGonagall had had a soft spot for her. He turned around and found Draco. He was sat on his own, looking up at the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall. It was a clear night and the stars shone down on them. Harry wondered if Lydia had stopped to appreciate the beautiful night sky before she had gone into the Forbidden Forest, or if she had just walked straight in with her head held high, focusing on nothing but her death.

Neville came up behind him and put his arm around his shoulders. Neither of them said anything, they did not have to. Daphne Greengrass brushed past them, wiping tears from her eyes. Harry put his hand on her arm and stopped her.

“I'm sorry we were never friends in school,” he said, “but thank-you for being nice to her,”

“I just saw her,” she whispered, “before she went. She said that we have to kill the snake,”

Harry nodded, “I know. She knows I know that,”

“I know,” Daphne said, “I’m sorry, Harry, that you've lost her,”

“Me too,” he said.

Daphne walked away from them and George was back in his line of sight. Something in him told him he had to go and sit with him, to at least take on the impossible task of making him feel better.

“You should go and speak to him,” Neville said quietly.

Harry nodded and walked over to him. George did not look up immediately. He just sat there, sniffling until Harry finally spoke.

“You know, if she knew you were crying this much she’d probably tell you to blow off some steam by blowing something up. Or whatever it is you do,” Harry said quietly.

“We were going to get married,” George said, “Fred was going to be my best man...”

“I know,” Harry said, his voice breaking, “I wanted to walk her down the aisle,” he cleared his throat, “but, George, in all seriousness, I want to...I want to say thank you,”

“What for?”

“For making her so happy. For loving her so much,” Harry said, “and...and I'm sorry that it had to be this way. I wish I could change it,”

“Let's just make sure that they didn't die for nothing, yeah?” George said.

Before Harry could reply, there was a searing pain in his scar and he yelled out, toppling down the steps. Quick as a flash, Ron and Hermione were next to him, pulling him up. Tears were falling over his cheeks before he could stop them and he felt as though he had lost a part of himself. He had lost a part of himself.

“She's gone,” Harry gasped, “He did it. He killed Lydia,”

Hermione burst into tears again. Ron did not react, perhaps he could not find it in himself to do so. Draco suddenly appeared at his shoulder, and Harry was shocked to see that there were tears in his eyes.

“Harry, what's that?” He said, pointing out of the doors of the Entrance Hall.

From the Forbidden Forest, Harry could see Voldemort walking towards them. Hagrid was walking behind him slightly, followed by the Death Eaters, but Lydia was nowhere to be seen. Without waiting for the others, Harry hurried outside and the great deal of footsteps behind him told him that everyone else had realised that something was happening.

Lord Voldemort came to a halt a short distance away from them, flanked by his Death Eaters. Hagrid was stood with them, holding something in his arms and Harry’s heart dropped to his stomach. From where he was stood, he could just about see a mess of black hair and a scarred, limp hand on which a pearl ring sat.

Lydia.

McGonagall realised who Hagrid was holding and let out a loud cry. Ron was staring at Lydia, his mouth hanging open slightly. George took one look at Lydia and yelled out, dissolving into sobs again and clinging onto Percy for support. Draco gripped Harry's arm so tightly that it was beginning to hurt, but it only reminded him that he wasn’t as numb as he really felt. Bellatrix was cackling so loudly, that it seemed to echo around the grounds and Harry wanted nothing more than to hurt her as badly as he could. For Neville’s parents, for Sirius, for Dobby, for Lydia...

“Lydia Potter, your saving grace, was killed when she found running away from the battle. She was more than prepared to leave you all to perish,” Voldemort spoke in a clear, loud voice. “Now, join my ranks, or die ,”

No one moved.

“Come, Draco,”

Harry looked over, Narcissa Malfoy was holding out her hand towards him.

“Come on,” she said.

“No,” Malfoy said. “No,” he said again, this time louder, “I stand with Harry Potter. I already told you,”

Then, even stranger, Neville walked forward, taking everyone by surprise. Harry grabbed Neville’s arm and tried to pull him back, but it was no use.

“And who is this?” Voldemort asked.

“It is Neville Longbottom, my Lord! The son of the Aurors!” Bellatrix cackled.

“Ah, yes, I remember,” said Voldemort, looking Neville up and down, “You are Pure-Blood, are you not? I am sure you will make a valuable Death Eater soon enough,”

“I’ll join you when hell freezes over,” Neville spat, “and I want to say something. Lydia dying doesn't mean it's over. She'd want us to fight. She always wanted us to fight. She wanted us to fight for everything - love, tolerance, Dumbledore's Army...if we stop now, it would be an insult to her memory!”

“You stupid boy!” Voldemort laughed, “Perhaps you can be an example to show what happens when you don't stand by me - crucio!” Neville screamed and became rigid, but he did not fall to the ground. It was like he was determined to stay stood upright, “And now,” Voldemort continued, “The school of Hogwarts will no longer have four houses, only one - Slytherin House!”

“If you did that, you'd be carrying on her legacy!” Harry yelled, “She was a Slytherin! And she fought against your stupid belief system every damn day she was at this school! Her Slytherin will live on!”

  
“But you, will not. Ava-“

“CONFRINGO!” Harry yelled, his wand aimed at Nagini. As he suspected, nothing happened, but it was enough to distract Voldemort, “GREAT HALL! NOW!”

  
“Accio sorting hat!” Hermione inexplicably cried.

Out of one of the smashed windows, the sorting hat soared through the air and landed in front of Neville. Harry watched as Neville stooped down and pulled something out of it, something long and silver. In one swift, clean motion, Neville brought the sword down through the air and onto Nagini. The snakes head spun in the air and fell to the ground.

No one needed telling twice. There was a great scuffle as both friend and foe made their way into the castle. The Great Hall was buzzing with activity. Ron and Hermione were expertly taking on four death eaters whilst Shacklebolt and McGonagall were both duelling Voldemort. Harry heard a cry and whirled around - Bellatrix was duelling Ginny and was about to deliver the fatal spell. Harry roared and ran forward but Mrs. Weasley beat him too it. She pushed Ginny out of the way and advanced on Bellatrix, looking more terrifying than Harry had ever seen her.

“Not my daughter, you bitch!” Harry watched in amazement as Mrs Weasley, the woman who Harry had become accustomed to seeing doing mundane tasks such as cooking, was duelling Bellatrix in the most violent way possible. Harry had never seen anyone fight like her. It was quite terrifying.

So terrifying, in fact, that the rest of the Hall actually stopped what they were doing to watch. With one final push, Bellatrix Lestrange fell to the floor, unmoving and Molly Weasley stepped back, a satisfied look on her face.

Voldemort ran towards Mrs. Weasley but was stopped by the entrance of a Patronus. A shining Doe galloped into the Hall and planted itself between Voldemort and Mrs. Weasley. Voldemort actually faltered at the sight of the doe, staring down at it.

He remembered being in the Room of Requirement in fifth year and watching Lydia teach the others the Patronus charm. This same Doe had sauntered around the room for the whole lesson, bringing warmth and comfort to what was quite a stressful lesson.

“It all ends here, Tom.” Harry said, “It’s between me and you.” He didn’t know how he knew, he just did.

“You dare call me that name?” He hissed, his red eyes full of contempt.

“Yes. Because that’s who you are and who you will die as.” Harry was surprised he was managing to maintain a calm voice.

“I will never die,” Voldemort spat.

“You will. We got the Horcruxes, Tom. We worked it all out.” Harry smiled. “And you can never hurt any of us again.”

“And why is that?”

“Love.” Harry said simply.

“Love?” Voldemort laughed, “You still believe in everything that Dumbledore told you?”

“My mother sacrificed herself for us,” Harry said, “And Lydia just did the same thing. You can hurt us anymore, Tom. We have love on our side. We always have,”

And then there were two cries:

“Avada Kadavra!”

“Expelliarmus!”

An eternity passed and Tom Riddle’s wand flew into the air. It ricocheted off the war and the curse hit him in the chest. Riddle took one last breath and fell to the floor with a mundane thump. There were seconds of silence and then the room erupted into cheers and there were hands grabbing him, hugging him - The Boy who Lived.

  
—-

Harry Potter was numb. He sat cross legged in the apartment that had once belonged to his father and wondered if he would ever feel anything again. He had gone to funeral after funeral but hadn’t felt a thing. He was scared that this next one would unlock a feeling that he wouldn’t be able to control.

He stood up from the floor and walked to his sisters room. Hands shaking, he placed his hand on the door handle and pushed it open. Sunlight was streaming through the open window. Her bed was unmade as she had left it and there was a Slytherin jumper screwed up on the floor. Slowly, he picked it up and dropped it back onto the bed.

He wandered over to the far wall and looked at the pictures that had been stuck there. There was one of him and her in their fourth year at the Yule Ball. It was hard to believe that Voldemort hadn’t returned at that point. That was probably why their smiles were so wide. There was another one of her and Ron playing exploding snap. She laughed loudly as they exploded in Rons face and he fell backwards off his chair. His favourite one, though, was the one of them with James. It was at The Burrow during the Christmas of their sixth year. They were wearing jumpers that Mrs Weasley had knitted and were beaming at the camera.

The funeral was the next day. He stood in front of the mirror and fiddled with his dress robes. They seemed heavier than usual. Or maybe that was just his heart. Ron and Hermione were waiting for him in the living room; their faces pale and deep bags under their eyes. The past few weeks had taken a toll on them all. Not for the first time, Harry wished that Lydia was around. She was always able to make light of a bad situation.

“How’s George?” Harry asked Ron. There wasn’t anyone who wasn’t constantly worried about him.

Ron shrugged. “He doesn’t really speak. I don’t know if he’ll be able to get through today. I don’t know if I will,”

Next to him, Hermione have a small sob. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I just can’t believe she’s gone,”

Ron put his arm around her, “you don’t need to apologise about anything,” he glanced up at Harry, “Do you have your eulogy?”

Harry nodded and held up a piece of parchment. It was a bit ridiculous really because so many people wanted to say something about her. Harry had had quite a stressful time trying to decide who would speak and had decided on himself and McGonagall. Neither Ron, Hermione nor George had felt like speaking. Harry thought that Lydia would have thought it all a bit much but, as Hermione pointed out, she was quite a big deal.

The funeral was held at Godric’s Hollow. George was stood with Lee Jordan. He was not crying, but looked completely blank. Harry thought that he might have preferred it if he was crying. Everyone else seemed to be crying. Hermione and Ginny were hugging each other and sobbing; Ron looked like he might collapse.

“You know, I don’t know if I can do this,” Ron muttered, looking around, “Wheres the nearest pub?”

“I can't do this either, but we’re doing it together,” Harry said, grabbing his arm and pulling him to sit down, “Attending my sister’s funeral wasn't exactly high on the list of things I wanted to do today,”

The first part of the funeral went by quickly. So quickly, in fact, that Harry barely registered what was going on. The wizard who had carried out Dumbledore's funeral had said a few words about how brave she was. Harry felt like that was a silly thing to say. Everyone already knew how brave she was. He looked down at the eulogy in his hands and realised that he had also written about how brave she was. Maybe he wouldn't mention that.

“And now, a word from one of Lydia's Hogwarts teachers, Minerva McGonagall,” the wizard said, bowing his head and moving aside.

McGonagall nodded at the wizard and cleared her throat.

“The first time I met Lydia, was a week after she and her brother were born,” Harry's head snapped up. He had never heard this story before, “and the next time I saw her, was after the fateful Halloween night, and I knew that the next time I saw them, they would not at all be the children that Lily and James would have brought them up to be, but they were OK. I knew that they would be safe at Hogwarts. Or..I thought they would be.

“Although Lydia was never in Gryffindor, she did become an honorary Gryffindor. So much so that sometimes I forgot she was not in my house and often gave house points to Gryffindor when I should have given them to Slytherin. She only started correcting me in her third year. Though, sometimes, I'm sure she let me take house points off Gryffindor instead of Slytherin,”

Harry smiled inwardly. He knew that Lydia used to let teachers take house points off Gryffindor when they got her house mixed up. He wondered why no one had ever called her out on it, though.

“Anyone who knew Lydia knew that she was not your average girl. Even from a young age she harboured a defiance that that I had only ever seen before in her mother. In fact, one of my clearest memories of the two of them are almost the same memory. I remember an eleven year old Lily Evans turning up to a Quidditch match with Slytherin colours painted on her cheeks, and Lydia turning up to one with Gryffindor colours painted on her cheeks,”

Some people laughed; perhaps they remembered the Quidditch match and the genuine controversy it caused, or perhaps the thought of an eleven year old going against the Hogwarts status quo was something ridiculous. The more Harry thought about it, the more he realised how ridiculous it really was. He felt as though that maybe he had never appreciated his sister for the amazing person she actually was.

“If we were all a little more like Lydia Potter, then maybe the world wouldn't be so bad,” she glanced at Lydia's coffin and a tear escaped her eye, “Rest easy, Miss Potter,”

There was a smattering of applause as McGonagall sat back down, wiping her eyes. Harry was beginning to think that him speaking was possibly the worst thing that he could do. He wasn't sure he would even be able to say her name without bursting into tears. He supposed that if there was ever an acceptable time for him to cry publicly, it was now.

“Finally, Lydia's twin brother, Harry, will say a few words,”

Harry clenched his jaw and stood up, walking to the front. His legs felt as though they were made of lead and he almost tripped over his dress robes. As he turned to face the congregation, Harry couldn't quite believe how many people were there. He was quite sure that some of these people had never met her before in their lives. Trying to smile tentatively, Harry unrolled the scroll of parchment in front of him and almost rolled his eyes at him. What he had written was a load of shit. He really should have gotten Hermione to read over it. Sighing, Harry rolled his parchment up and looked up at everyone again.

“For the longest time, the only person I had was Lydia. W-we didn't have a lot growing up. We didn't have anything...we didn't have anything but each other,” he was angry at how much his voice was shaking, “And now that I don't even have her, I don't actually know what I'm going to do. We were always aware that there was every chance that we wouldn't come out of this alive, but- but I never thought about it. I never wanted to t-think about a world where my sister wasn't alive,”

He glanced over at Ron and Hermione, both of whom were now sobbing uncontrollably. George was staring at his hands, Lee Jordan had his arm around his shoulders and was looking up at the sky. He took a shaky breath and forced himself to start speaking again.

“I could go on and on about how brave and kind and funny Lydia was, but what would be the point in that? Everyone already knows all these things about her. You knew it every time you had a conversation with her. My favourite thing about her was how she stood up for people, all the time. She once cursed someone because they said something, ‘vaguely mean,’ about me and...that's just the kind of person she was.

“But, since I'm her brother, I think I'm allowed to talk about the moments in her life when she wasn't that amazing. Like the time she accidentally on purpose disintegrated an entire row of desks in potions and just turned to me and said, ‘do you think we’re going to get detention for this?’” He paused as people laughed, “and, for the record, we both spent three weeks in detention and she still stands - sorry, she stood by the fact that it was an overreaction on Professor Snape’s part. Hermione still says that it's her own fault for throwing two fireworks into the cauldron, when one would have been more than enough.

He shook his head and wiped his eyes.

“And...one would have been more than enough. And one more day with her would have be more than enough. Because...because there's things I need to tell her. It's stupid because I never realised that sometimes I’d just speak to her about stupid stuff. It wasn't all Horcruxes and Lord Voldemort, sometimes we’d just talk about what we wanted to eat for breakfast and how tired we were. Just this morning, I woke up and I was going to ask her if she wanted to g-go to the Leaky Cauldron for s-something to eat, but then I remembered that she isn't here anymore.

“Anyway, there's no point in getting worked up over all this because...well, because we can't change what happened, I guess. What we can do though, is make sure that this never happens again. We can make sure that no one ever has to do what Lydia had to do ever again. And we carry on, for Lydia,”

Tears now streaming down his face, he turned and looked at the coffin for the first time. It was so small. It didn't look big enough. Slowly, he placed his hand on it and let himself cry.

“Goodbye, Lydia,” he whispered.

Ron appeared at his shoulder and lead him back to his seat. He squeezed his eyes shut when the actual burial took place. That was the last thing he wanted to see. It was only when he heard Hermione start to cry again that he opened his eyes and he took in the headstone. Lydia had been added onto Lily and James’, and it only made him feel worse.

**_James Potter_ **

_March 27th 1960 - October 31st 1981  
June 24th 1995 - June 30th 1997_

**_Lily Potter_ **

_January 30th 1960 - October 31st 1981_

**_Lydia Potter_ **

_July 31st 1980 - May 2nd 1998_

_The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death._

“She's really gone,” a voice whispered behind Harry.

He turned around. George was stood there, staring at the headstone.

“I'm sorry, Harry,” he said, “losing a twin, it's tough...anyway, I'll see you around,”

“Yeah. See you, George,”

Hermione came up behind him and took his hand, “I don't want to upset you, but your Aunt, Uncle and cousin here,”

He jumped as though something as stung him and turned around. Sure enough, in the very back row, the Dursleys were sat, looking as though they weren't sure what to do with themselves. Anger boiled within him as he stared at them. He was willing to bet that this was the first time that Petunia had even come to visit her sisters grave. He wondered what Lydia would think if she knew that Dursleys had come to her funeral.

Against his better judgement, he walked over to them. He knew that if he didn't speak to them one last time, he would be angry at himself. There must have been some reason for them coming, however strange the reason might have been. Both Ron and Hermione tried to pull him back, but he shoved them off.

“Vernon,” Harry said, “Petunia, Dudley...why are you here?”

“To pay our respects,” Vernon said, eyeing Harry uneasily.

“You never respected her when she was alive,” snapped Harry, “and you're a bit late now, aren't you?”

“She never respected us!” Petunia said.

Harry rolled his eyes, “Oh, just fuck off, would you? She died to save your sorry arses and you're still insulting her!”

“Harry, mate, just leave it,” Ron muttered in his ear, “Let's just...let's just go-”

“No!” Harry yelled, “No! Do you know what these twats were like when we were growing up? They never gave two shits about us! They have no idea - no idea...” His voice broke, “every year, we’d come back from H-Hogwarts traumatised from some shit we’d have to put up with and they wouldn't give a damn! And now that she's dead, they feel bad and they're just here to ease their conscience!” He glared at them, “You know - don't even know - I wish - you - fuck off. Seriously, the three of you, fuck off. I don't - I don't ever want to hear from you ever again. I don't want anything to do with any of you ever again,”

Hermione gently took his hand again and pulled him away from the Dursleys, all of whom looked to be in varying states of shock. He heard Ron tell them to piss off and he managed a smile. He looked around again and his eyes fell on Professor McGonagall who was stood at the headstone, her head bowed.

“Sorry, can I just...can I speak to McGonagall?” Harry said quietly.

“Of course,” Hermione said, kissing him on the cheek, “We’ll be back at that pub...”

“I'll be there,”

Hermione smiled at him, “No you won't, Harry. I’ll see you tomorrow,”

Professor McGonagall did not immediately look up when Harry joined her. He was quite sure he could hear her crying. He had never quite appreciated how hard it would be for the Hogwarts teachers who would have to see their students die.

“Professor, is there anyone at Hogwarts right now?”

“I don't believe so, no. Why?” McGonagall answered.

“I - I just want to go back for a few hours. You don't...you don't mind, do you?”

“No, Harry,” she replied. Before he walked off, she put her hand on his shoulder, “I am sorry that you lost her, Harry. It shouldn't have ended this way,”

“But it did, Professor,” said Harry, “There's nothing I can do about that now,”

He Apparated into Hogsmeade and made the long walk up to the castle. He took his cloak off and dropped it onto a wall. Carrying it around was too much work. Everything was too much work. It was only when he got up to the castle that he realised it was the place on earth that he wanted to be. He could still hear the sounds of the battle, he could still smell everything he could on that night.

Then, he did something that he knew that he probably shouldn't and walked into the Forbidden Forest; walked the very same path that he did. He didn't really know where she was going, but there was something pulling him to the very heart of the forest. He didn't even have his wand in his hand in case something tried to attack him. Maybe the forest would understand that he'd had more than enough people try to attack him in his lifetime.

He knew he was in the right place when he came to a clearing. The ground was dead and scorched, and he knew he was in the same place that his sister had been when he had been killed. He wondered what she had thought about in her last minutes, if anything. Had she thought of him, Ron, Hermione and George? Or had she just stared blankly ahead, waiting for death?

Bile rising in his throat, he turned around, intent on leaving but then something caught his eyes. How he noticed it, he wasn't entirely sure, but he was very glad that he did. It was a small black stone that he had spent weeks obsessing over, and Lydia had not thought that it was important...until it was.

For the second time that day, he did something against his better judgement and picked it up off the ground. He stared at it for a moment and then nodded. Dumbledore had left it for him for a reason...he had wanted him to use it. To say goodbye, one last time. And so he turned it over three times in his hand.

A bright, calming light filled the clearing and he turned around. For a moment, he could see nothing but the bright light and then it came into focus.

“Lydia...” He breathed.

She looked exactly as she did when she had died. Her hair in a bun on the top of her head and her wand stuck in it. She was smiling at him, though there was some sadness in the smile.

“Hey, H,” she said, “those dress robes are awful,”

“I wore these to your funeral,” he said.

She scrunched up her nose, “You're going downhill already,”

“I miss you, Lyds. I didn't - I didn't want you to die,”

A tear rolled down her cheek, “I've not gone far, not really. I’ll never leave you, Harry,”

“You seem really far away, now, Lyds,” Harry said, “Really, really far away,”

Lydia looked away from him. Even his death, she hated crying in front of people.

“You can't focus on this forever, Harry. The resurrection stone will drive you mad. You know what happened in that story,” Lydia said, “We’re going to have to goodbye soon,”

Harry shook his head, “I - I don't want to. I have no one else,”

She rolled her eyes, “Don't be ridiculous, Harry. You have Ron and Hermione and Neville and Luna and...Draco. Do me a favour, H, ask Draco out. You’ll only do everyone's head in, if not,”

He laughed, “Yeah, maybe I should...” He wiped his eyes, “George misses you,”

“I know,” Lydia whispered, “I miss him. I miss - I miss you all,”

“I can't stick around here forever, can I?” Harry said.

“No, you have a life to live,” she said, “Go and get a job and marry Draco and live a normal life. It's what you deserve. It's what we both deserved. Do it for me, at least.”

“Lydia, can I just...before you go. Can I say...thank-you,” he said, “for everything,”

She grinned at him, though there were still tears streaming down her face, “Get rid of the stone, Harry, the last thing we need is more people going insane,”

He nodded at her, “I know, Lydia. I'm not as stupid as you think I am,”

“Yes, you are, Harry,” Lydia said. She grinned at him, “I say that with all the love in the world,”

“Goodbye, Lydia,”

\---

Nineteens Year Later

George Weasley wandered around his shop. He was not going to open today, but he liked to make sure that everything was still in order. His eyes fell on the cage of Pygmy Puffs. A particularly fluffy purple one looked up at him and squeaked. Bile rising up in his throat, he hurried to the front of the shop and put the closed sign up and backed away. It was always this bad on September 1st. That’s when he always thought of them.

The sound of footsteps thundering down the stairs brought him back to earth. George straightened his back and looked up as his son, Fred, launched himself at him and George only just managed to catch him.

“You alright, mate?” He asked.

Fred yawned. He was just turned 10 and was already excited about Hogwarts.

“I want to go to school!” He said.

“You can’t go yet,” George reminded him, putting him on the floor, “but it won’t be long now. Only one more year,”

“I’m going to play on my broom,” and then he raced off.

Slowly, George followed him. He had never married or found anyone again. He didn’t want to. But when his brothers started having kids and he became more known as “Uncle George” than anything else, he realised that there was something missing from his life. Harry and Draco had pointed him in the direction of adoption and he was content with life.

As he walked through the back room and out into the garden, he realised how lucky he was to be alive.

—-

“Harry, dear, we’re going to be late,” Draco said, pushing the trolley with all the trunks on, “Where has Lydia gone? Oh - she’s there - Lydia! No! Don’t mess up your hair it took me hours - oh, Merlin...” he sighed, “and I thought James was going to be the nightmare child,”

“He is,” Harry reminded him, “And so is Lydia. We adopted two nightmare children,” he glanced behind them at their twins who were still two years out Hogwarts: Ruby Luna and Remus Neville Potter-Malfoy. “At least the twins are quiet,”

“For now,” Draco muttered, herding their children through the gate at the platform. Lydia practically skipped through. “I knew two sets of twins at Hogwarts and neither were quiet,”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Harry said lightly.

“There they are!” Ruby said, pointing at Ron and Hermione who were stood with Rose and Hugo.

“All right?” Ron asked, “I’m going to have a free house all today! Hermione's at work, kids at school...I’m going to take full advantage and do nothing!”

“I left a list of things you need to do on the kitchen table,” Hermione reminded him.

“I’m going to take full advantage and do some things!” Ron corrected. “George closed the shop today,” he added to Harry and Draco.

“Not that I can blame him,” Hermione said quietly.

“He didn’t want to because of...you know,” Ron said, looking uncomfortable.

“You can say her name, Ron, I’m not going to start crying. I do have a child named after her,” Harry reminded him.

“Yeah, well I don’t want to say her name. I’m emotional today! We met 19 years ago today! Do you remember?” He said.

“Vividly,” Hermione sighed.

“Who’d have thought we’d end up here?” Draco laughed.

Harry snorted and looked over at Hermione who had tears in her eyes. He sighed and put his arm around her as she hurriedly wiped her eyes. Ron was stood behind them, tormenting the kids.

“I’m sorry,” she sniffed, “I just can’t help but think about her,”

“I know,” Harry said quietly, “me too. But she’d be really annoyed if we were crying about her. Especially if the Minister for Magic was crying about her,

Hermione laughed and straightened up, wiping her eyes. “I know.” She sighed and looked around, “Merlin, I miss her,”

“We all do,” Ron said, rejoining them.

Lydia tugged on her fathers hand and pulled him away from the group. She looked suddenly very anxious. Harry frowned at her.

“What’s wrong, love?” He asked.

“What if I’m sorted into Slytherin? I know dad was in Slytherin but Uncle Ron always said how you didn’t like each other in school and I don’t want people to not like me!”

“How many times does your Aunt Hermione have to tell you that you should never listen to anything Ron says?” Harry asked. She smiled a little bit. “If it’s bothering you that much, you don’t have to go into Slytherin. You can ask the sorting hat to place you somewhere else, that’s what it did for me but-“ he put his arm around her, “Lydia Lily Potter-Malfoy, you were named after two of the bravest women I know. One of whom were in Slytherin.

“If you end up in Slytherin, you will be following in the footsteps of another amazing Lydia who probably would have been quite annoyed if at least one of her nieces or nephews didn’t end up in her house,”

Somewhere, someone blew a whistle and people started to get onto the train. Harry hugged his children goodbye and tried to tell them to behave, but he was quite sure that neither of them were listening.

“They’ll be OK, you know,” Draco said, “Lydia especially,”

“I know,”

“Harry, are you in the office today?” Ron asked, “because there’s no way I’m going to get all these errands done on my own,”

“Is that code for you’re emotional and need a drink?”

“Obviously,”

Harry watched as the scarlet engine pulled out of the train station. He smiled slightly as he envisioned his sister for a moment; he saw her stood on the platform with him. Her green eyes as bright as ever and her wand sticking out of her hair. He touched the scar on his forehead that had not prickled for nineteen years. All was well.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> -E.


	7. Welcome to Slytherin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship, is to understand and to be understood," - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Prefects, please take your new students to their common rooms,” Professor Dumbledore said.

There was a great deal of noise as people began to move. Lydia jumped up and, though she didn't really want to, she stuck close to Draco Malfoy because he seemed to be walking around like he owned the place. Before she went, she locked eyes with Dumbledore, hoping that he might let her transfer to Gryffindor if he saw how scared she was, but he simply smiled and nodded at her. When they reached the doors of the Great Hall, two large Gryffindors stopped in front of her, staring down at her with cold eyes.

“A Potter kid in Slytherin? That doesn't make any sense, does it?” One of them said.

“What's up with you then? Are you the defect?” The other said, “is Harry the normal one?”

Lydia blushed and hurried after the other Slytherins. In an attempt to stop other people from noticing her, she kept her eyes trained on the floor and did not look up until they got to the dungeons. The prefect was speaking to them as they were going, but Lydia could not pay her attention. She was too busy trying not to vomit all over everyone. She didn't know much about making friends, but Lydia was quite sure vomiting all over people was not the best way to make friends.

“This is how we get into our common room,” The prefect said, stopping at a bare, brick wall, “you need a password to get into here and only Slytherins are allowed in. If you make friends with other houses, and I highly doubt you will-”

At this, Draco Malfoy gave Lydia a very pointed look and she turned away from him. Daphne Greengrass met her eyes and looked as though she was about to smile at her but then looked away. This simple act reminded Lydia of the way the people at her Muggle school used to treat her because they were scared of Dudley's gang. Refusing to let them bully her like Dudley did, she held her head high and folded her arms tightly.

“The password changes every term,” the Prefect continued, “the password this term is Pure,”.

At the word, ‘Pure,’, the wall behind her opened revealing a room behind it. Even Lydia couldn't help but gasp and she quickly walked in, taking in the room. It was a grand room that was cast in a eerie green glow. At first, Lydia could not work out where the green glow was coming from, but then she caught sight of a window in the very corner of the room that looked out into the-

“Yes, we’re under the lake,” the Prefect said, smiling slightly, “every now and then, you’ll see the Giant Squid float past that window. It's a strangely comforting sight, actually,”

Lydia automatically turned around to see how Harry was reacting to this, but then remembered that he was with the Gryffindors. She had never known a world where Harry was constantly stood next to her.

“Being in Slytherin is a great privilege,” the Prefect said, “You won't find better people anywhere else. The group you're stood in now will have your back through everything, which is much better than surrounding yourselves with a load of Mudbloods,”

Lydia frowned, she didn't know what that word was or what it meant, but the way that the others laughed at it made her feel like it wasn't a good thing. She looked up and opened her mouth to ask the question but someone nudged her in the side.

“Don't,” Daphne whispered to her. She was not laughing, “it's much easier to let them laugh,”

“What does that mean, though?” Lydia asked, “I don't-”

“Mudblood means dirty blood, Potter,” the Prefect explained, “someone who isn't a true Witch or Wizard because of their Muggle parentage,”

“Oh,” Lydia said, softly.

There was more laughter and Lydia turned to Daphne again. She wasn't laughing but she also wasn't looking at Lydia. In fact, she was acting as though they had never had a conversation in the first place. It made Lydia feel strangely lonely and so she went back to staring at the floor whilst the others continued to laugh.

“As I was saying,” the prefect said, “being in Slytherin is a great privilege. We’re following in the footsteps of great wizards. Merlin himself was a Slytherin and as Slytherins, we will all go on to do great things. Our house motto is, “Do what is necessary,” and I'll leave you all to interpret that however you wish,”

They were directed to their dormitories and Lydia made a beeline for the bed in the corner. If being brought up by the Dursleys had taught her anything, it was that she knew that if she tucked herself away in a corner, then people would ignore her and maybe even forget that she existed. That's what she and Harry had spent most of their childhoods doing.

The other girls stuck together, chatting happily. Lydia glanced over at them and when Pansy Parkinson turned around to look at her, she turned around a lot quicker and began unpacking what little possessions she had. When she was finished, Lydia sat down on her ridiculously comfy bed and looked around the room. It was lit by candles that hung in the air in the same way as the ones did in the Great Hall did.

“Where's your stuff?” Millicent Bullstrode asked, loudly.

“I've unpacked,” Lydia said.

Pansy Parkinson marched over to her and wrenched her wardrobe open, revealing her three jumpers (all with holes in them), one very thin t-shirt and two pairs of jeans that Lydia could only wear if she fastened her belt as tightly as possible around her. All of her clothes were covered in holes and had once belonged to Dudley, so nothing fit her properly. Her school robes were the first clothes that fit and had only ever belonged to her.

“That's all you've brought?” Pansy cackled.

Lydia did not know what to say. She tried to close the doors of the wardrobe but Pansy elbowed her in the stomach and Lydia staggered backwards. Millicent Bullstrode started to laugh and Tracey Davies quickly joined in. Lydia felt her face burn bright red but she refused to let herself start crying in front of them.

“Are those boys clothes?” Davies asked.

“It's none of your business!” Lydia shouted, shoving Pansy out of the way and slammed her wardrobe door shut, “go away!”

Pansy snorted, “Ha! You’re so strange, Potter. Did You-Know-Who mess your brain up when he tried to kill you?”

“Don't talk about that!” Lydia exclaimed, “I don't want to talk about it!”

“Whatever, Potty,” Davies scoffed, “Did you see that Hermione Granger at the feast? She was talking loudly about being a Mudblood and how proud her parents were!”

Rage boiled through Lydia's blood but she did not rise to it. Aunt Petunia had always taught her that it was rude for girls to shout and scream like the boys. When she had once shouted at Dudley for stealing her breakfast, Aunt Petunia had locked her in the cupboard for three days and told her to never raise her voice again. Lydia glared at them and wrenched the curtains around her bed, curling up under her covers.

Now that she was alone, tears burned in her eyes and threatened to spill over but Lydia wouldn't let herself cry. Nothing good ever came of crying was what Aunt Petunia told her, so Lydia never did. What she really wanted to do, was go and find Harry but she had no idea where the Gryffindor common room was. The castle was massive and she had only seen the Great Halls and the dungeons.

The next morning, after Lydia had barely slept, she dressed very quickly in an attempt to get away from the other girls and up to the Great Hall. The first thing she saw when she got to the doors was Harry and Ron sat at the Gryffindor table and, without even thinking about it, Lydia automatically walked in the direction of her brother but someone touched her on the shoulder.

“Oh, morning, Daphne,” Lydia muttered, not quite meeting her eye.

“Slytherin table is over there,” Daphne said, pointing.

“I don't want to sit there,” Lydia shrugged, “I'm going to sit with Harry,”

Without realising that what she was doing was very controversial, Lydia boldly walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat in the seat next to Harry. There were. Some mutterings up and down the table, but Lydia ignored them. She was just happy to be back with Harry and away from the Slytherins.

“What's wrong?” Harry asked.

Lydia shook her head, “I don't like Slytherin,”

“Not many people do,” Ron said, looking at her strangely.

“Hey, Ron, she's my twin! She's the same as me!” Harry said.

Lydia's hand automatically went to cover up her tie because Ron seemed to be glaring at it, “I didn't ask to be in Slytherin!”

“It doesn't make you a bad person,” Harry said, speaking very confidently.

By the end of breakfast, Ron was talking to Lydia normally and she realised that she had just made her first friend.

\---

“That Hermione Granger really is ugly!” Pansy whispered, “I think she's very brave to show her face around school looking that,”

Lydia frowned at Pansy and then looked over at Hermione Granger. She was stood on her own whilst they waited to go into Potions. The other girls continued to talk about Hermione under their breath and it made Lydia angrier than she already was. As far as Lydia could tell, Hermione Granger was not ugly and Pansy was just being unnecessarily rude.

Hoisting her bag further up her shoulder, Lydia walked over to Hermione Granger and tapped her on the arm. Hermione looked at her, one eyebrow raised and looking thoroughly confused.

“Hello!” Lydia said, brightly, “I'm Lydia Potter,”

“Yes, I know,” Hermione said, smiling slightly, “I'm Hermione Granger,”

“I’m not very good at Potions, but you are. You don't mind if I sit next to you today, do you? I need all the help I can get,”

“Of course not!” Hermione beamed, just as the door opened and Professor Snape called them inside.

As with all Lydia’s Potions lessons, everything went completely wrong. She seemed quite unable to be able to read the instructions that were written on the blackboard an almost managed to mess something up. Professor Snape liked to stand by Lydia's desk just so he could talk loudly about how badly she was doing. If it weren't for the fact that Uncle Vernon spent a big chunk of his time insulting Harry and Lydia in front of people, it might have upset her.

“All you did was forget to put Valerian Sprig in it,” Hermione said as they left the dungeons, “if you'd have put that in it, it wouldn't have been a complete disaster!”

“Well, it put Snape in a good mood, didn't it?” Lydia asked, “nothing makes him happier than bullying me and Harry,”

“Thank-you for sitting with me, Lydia, none of the Gryffindor girls seem to like me,” Hermione said.

“Oh, don't worry about it, none of the Slytherin girls seem to like me,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank-you for reading! 
> 
> I felt like that quote kind of summed up the beginning of Lydia's and Hermione's friendship, because at the start of school, they were in the same boat but different houses. 
> 
> Also, I just really like the thought of eleven year old Lydia completely ignoring every Hogwarts tradition just because she can. 
> 
> -E.


	8. George, Part 1.

“See you in a bit,” George said, winking at Lydia before he left the dungeons. He turned to the assembled Slytherins, “Follow me!”

He let the Slytherins go in front of him as he glanced back at Lydia one last time. Leaving her was the last thing that he wanted to do. He didn't know how long they had left together, but he forced himself to move on. Getting sentimental would not win them the war, after all.

“Go through there,” he said to the Slytherins when they reached the Room of Requirement, “and then you can Apparate out of Hogsmeade,”

“Georgie!”

He turned to see Fred running over to him, his eyes alight. “You alright?”

“Great night for it!” Fred beamed, “Come on, we’re setting traps outside the secret passageways. Poor Death Eaters won't know what's hit them!”

Despite himself, George grinned, “Brilliant,”

The traps were set and the Death Eaters were not dealing with them very well. George couldn't help but laugh as two Death Eaters struggled through a batch of Fireworks that exploded all around them. Though, the icing on the cake was three separate Venomous Tentaculas falling onto a Death Eater who George recognised from Malfoy Manor.

Eventually, they broke through and, forever in sync, Fred and George drew their wands and began duelling. Despite the severity of the situation, George could hear Fred in fits of laughter behind them and he thought that they actually might get through the night. Percy ran over to them, his glasses askew and his hair a mess.

“Alright, Perce?” George asked.

“ _Stupefy_!” Percy yelled as a Death Eater came barrelling towards them, “This isn't how I planned to spend my evening!”

“It's a lot more fun than your original plan though, isn't it?” Fred said to him, grinning.

The very walls of the castle seemed to be shaking and through the dust and the spells all around him, George had managed to lose sight of Fred and Percy. They had been next to him one minute and gone the next. Fighting down the fear that was raging through him, he shoved a Death Eater into a suit of armour and ran down the stairs, stupefying another Death Eater before they could get to Neville and Professor Sprout.

“Cheers, George,” Neville said, breathing heavily, “This is mad, isn't it?”

“This is what Dumbledore’s Army was for,” George pointed out, “You haven't seen Lydia, have you?”

Neville shook his head, “No. The last time I saw her was when you were going to the dungeons,”

George bit his lip has anxiety gnawed away at his heart. Every part of his brain was telling him that she was OK and that they would know if something awful had happened to her, but there was still a part of him that seemed very happy to point out that Voldemort could be killing her at that exact moment.

“She’ll be - _DEPULSO_ \- she’ll be fine,” Neville said, “We’re going to - _EXPULSO! PETRIFICUS TOTALU_ S! - we’re going to win this. I know we are,”

Neville was very quickly swept away in the crowd after this and so George ran on, trying to convince himself that what Neville was saying was true. They would win this. There was no way that they could ever lose this. He ducked under a spell that came racing towards him and flicked his wand in the general direction that it had come from.

He caught sight of Fleur and Bill metres away from him and George immediately made his way over to them, but then he heard Lydia shout his name and he spun around, trying to find her in the crowd of people. He had never realised how short she really was until now.

“GEORGE! GEORGE!”

He watched as she pushed through the crowd and ran over to him. His heart momentarily stopped beating when he laid eyes on her; her clothes were ripped and dirty, and there was blood covering the left side of her face and dripping onto her neck and chest. He had no idea what had happened, but he knew that whatever he was about to say to her was not good news.

“What's wrong?” He asked, what's happened?”

But before she could reply, the cold voice of Lord Voldemort sounded throughout the castle and George could not help but flinch. It was as though he was stood right next to him. Lydia whimpered slightly and grabbed onto George’s hand, her eyes shut.

“You have fought valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. Yet you have sustained heavy losses,”

Lydia seemed to grip even tighter onto his hand and George wondered who they had lost.

“Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat, immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured,” there was a flurry of movement as the Death Eaters around them began to leave. George had never been so happy to see the back of them.

“I speak now, Harry and Lydia Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle commences,”

As much as George hated to say it, Voldemort knew Harry and Lydia well. He knew that guilt tripping into thinking they were the reason so many people were dead would be the best way to get to them. Lydia opened her eyes and looked up at him, her expression was unreadable.

“Don't. Don't do it,” George said to her, because he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“This time, I shall enter the fray myself, and I shall find you both, and I shall punish ever last man, woman and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour,”

Neville had joined them and was shaking his head at Lydia, though George did not think that Lydia was paying him any attention. He glanced over at the doors of the Entrance Hall and, for a moment, he could envision Voldemort walking through the doors, his wand raised high, looking for Harry and Lydia. And yet, the thought of Lord Voldemort was not scary to him. The scariest thought was the possibility that he might lose Lydia.

“Potter,” George jumped as McGonagall walked over to them, looking weary, “I know what you are thinking, and I implore you not to hand yourself over. We will not be defeated,”

George looked down at Lydia and frowned. She looked defeated and that was not a look that he was used to seeing on her. Even in the darkest of moments, there was a fire burning brightly behind her eyes.

“Lyds, who dead?” George asked, speaking very slowly, “who is it?”

Ever so slowly, she looked up and met his eyes, “I am so sorry,”

“Who is it?”

“There's nothing I could do. Nothing any of us could do,”

George stared at her for a moment longer and then he realised who she was talking about. But it couldn't be him. No, because he wouldn't die. He was not the type of person who would die. He was too funny, too clever, too good at duelling for dying. She must have got it wrong. She must have saw someone else die.

“Don't tell me he's dead. Lydia, do not tell me that he's gone,”

She nodded.

George yelled and fell to the ground, tears streaming thick and fast down his cheeks as he body began to shake uncontrollably. Fred Weasley was dead. He was gone. The months that he had spent at Malfoy Manor were not nearly as painful as the sickening realisation that his twin was gone. He felt Lydia kneel next to him and wrap her arms around him, pulling him as close to her as she could. He wrapped his arms around her stomach and sobbed into her t-shirt.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Lydia spoke again.

“Georgie,” she said, speaking so softly that he could barely hear her, “Georgie. We need to go,”

“I c-can't,”

“George, pease,” Lydia said, “he’s going to come soon. We can't be here when he does. You can't be here when he does. You need to be out of the way,”

“Y-you can't be h-here w-when he comes!” George yelled, holding onto her tighter, “You ca-can’t go t-too!”

“No, of course not,” Lydia said, “I won't be anywhere near him. Just get up, please, Georgie,”

Deep down, he knew that everything she was saying to him was a lie but he deserved to have this. He deserved to pretend that she would not have to face Voldemort one way or the other in the end. Gently, Lydia took his hands and helped him off the floor; his legs felt weak and he gripped onto her as though she were his lifeline. She might have been his lifeline.

“In here,” Neville said to them, pointing over at the Great Hall.

“Thanks, Nev,” Lydia whispered.

The Great Hall was full of both the survivors and the dead, but George could take no notice of anything but his family. They were gathered around Fred’s body and George hurried over to them. He was terrified of seeing his brother dead, but more terrified of the possibility that he might never be able to say goodbye to him.

“George!” His mum gasped. She was knelt on the floor next to Fred’s head whilst his dad knelt besides her, “Georgie, dear, come here-”

He did not say anything and just hugged his mother. His poor mother, who should not have to go through this. Arthur came up behind him and gently put his hand on George’s shoulder, sobbing quietly. The sound of his fathers sobs hurt George in a way that he could not believe; his father never cried.

“I'm so sorry, son,” he whispered, suddenly gripping his shoulder tightly, “but we’re going to get through this. Here, do you want to - do you want to see him?”

Through his tears, George nodded and turned to look at Fred. His hair, so covered in dust looked almost black and was matted with blood that was starting to form a pool around the back of his head. Both of his arms looked to be completely broken and there was blood coming out of the corner of his mouth. The breath caught in George’s throat and he felt himself stagger back. Fred did not deserve to go like this. His did not deserve to go at all. Ron caught him before he fell backwards and held onto him as he slowly sank to the floor and dropped his head into his hands.

“I'm gonna be here for you, Georgie, whatever you need,” Ron said, quietly.

George turned to look at his youngest brother and was suddenly taken aback by how much he had grown, “I know, Ron,” he turned away from Ron and saw Lydia. She was hovering awkwardly in front of him, her eyes flitting from Fred and then back over to him.

He leapt up and walked over to her, putting his arms around her and resting his chin on the top of her head, “I don't know what I'm going to do. The shop...”

Lydia looked up at him and wiped his eyes, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Whatever happens, we’ll get through it,”

He nodded but he wasn't really sure that he believed her. He would never be able to see himself in a world where he could get through this. Harry came up behind Lydia and tapped her on the shoulder. They had a whispered conversation that George knew he didn't have to be apart of and waited until Lydia turned back to him.

“I need to go and do something,”

Fear started up again and the room around him began to spin, “You’re not...you’re not handing yourself over, are you?”

“Of course not,” she said, “I’ll be right back,”

And then she was gone.

George stood in the exact same spot as she had left him in for a while and kept his eyes fixed on the doors of the Great Hall. Soon, he told himself, she would be back with Harry and they would have a plan that would fix everything that happened. The war would be over and they would be free. They could go home and start again.

After a while, he began to panic because she still hadn't come back. He glanced down at his watch and the hour that had passed was soon coming to and end. Wanting fresh air, he glanced at Fred and snuck away from his family, but sneaking away wasn't nearly as fun when Fred wasn't in on the joke. Nothing was as fun when Fred wasn't in on the joke.

He sat on the stone steps of the Entrance Hall and stared out into the grounds, wiping his eyes. The trees of the Forbidden Forest were swaying in the distance and George quickly looked away from them; Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters were in there somewhere and George was not looking forward to them coming back. But then he felt a sudden rush of anger towards every single one of them. It was them, after all, who murdered his brother and them who would have to pay the price for it. Suddenly he gripped hold of his wand and stood up, as though he was going to charge into the forest all alone, it he quickly sat down and stuck his wand back in his pocket. That would be ridiculous, he told himself, there's no way you could take him on on your own.

“George? George? Oh, there you are,”

He turned around just as Charlie sat down next to him and put his arm around him, “Everyone's in the Great Hall-”

“Have you seen Lydia?” he asked, “she went to Dumbledore’s office with Harry but I've not seen her since,”

Tears suddenly sprang to Charlie’s eyes and George could not understand why. It was only a simple question.

“Harry just told us, George. Oh, I'm so sorry....but, she’s gone to Voldemort. She's had to give herself up-”

“NO!” George roared. He jumped up again and launched himself to the Forbidden Forest. He could still get to her, he could convince her to come back. Or let him go with her. At least then he wouldn't be on his own once it was all over. If he shouted loud enough, she would probably be able to hear him. She couldn't have gone far, “LYDIA!”

He felt Charlie grab him and drag him backwards. George spun around and shoved Charlie in the chest. He didn't understand. Lydia didn't have to die. No one had to die. Not anymore. But Charlie was much stronger than he was and he pushed him to the floor.

“If you go after her, you'll only make it harder for her. And he’ll just kill you too. Do you want to put mum and dad through that?”

“I don't have anything - not without them,” George sobbed.

“George, listen to me. These next few months are going to be really hard, but you have to get through it. For them,” Charlie hauled him to his feet and through a hand around his shoulders, “Come on. Let's get away from here,”

The Entrance Hall was packed with people, all of whom kept on giving him annoyingly sympathetic looks. He didn't need sympathy. He just needed people to leave him alone until he was ready.

“I need -”

“It's alright, Georgie,” Charlie said, quietly and kissing his temple, “go be alone for a while,”

Dragging his feet, George walked over to the marble staircase and sat down, drawing his knees up to chest. He remembered standing there with Fred on the evening of the Yule Ball, waiting for Lydia. Fred had nudged him and pointed over to the dungeons where she had just come out of. She was smiling, albeit a little awkwardly, and George might have fallen in love with her there and then. He glanced back over at the doors of the Entrance Hall and remembered the last Christmas they had spent with each other at Hogwarts. Slughorn's Party might have been a bit of a disaster but at least the Mistletoe had made her laugh. He probably fell in love with her a little bit more each day and wondered if that would stop now. Pushing that thought from his mind, he rested his forehead on his knees and for a moment, he could feel her lips against his and realised that he hadn't even been able to kiss her one last time.

Someone's arm brushed against George’s shoulder and, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Harry. He could not look over at him immediately; they were both in the same situation. They had both lost people they loved the most and George did not know what to say to him.

“You know, if she knew you were crying this much she’d probably tell you to blow off some steam by blowing something up. Or whatever it is you do,” Harry said.

“We were going to get married,” George said, looking down at the finger that a wedding ring would never sit on, “Fred was going to be my best man...”

“I know,” Harry said, his voice shaking, “I wanted to walk her down the aisle...” George nodded and closed his eyes. He could see it now; Lydia wearing a white dress and beaming as she walked down the aisle with Harry. “But, George, in all seriousness, I want to...I want to say thank-you?”

“What for?” George asked, frowning.

“For making her so happy. For loving her so much,” Harry said, “and...and I'm sorry that it had to be this way. I wish I could change it,”

“Let's just make sure they didn't for nothing, yeah?” was all that George could manage to say.

Suddenly, Harry yelped and topped down the stairs, holding his forehead. At once, George jumped up and ran after him just as Ron and Hermione appeared next to Harry. Percy ran over to George and gripped his arm, staring out of the Entrance Hall, his mouth hanging open.

“She's gone,” Harry gasped, “He did it. He killed her,”

George felt his knees give way and Percy gripped onto him, pulling him up. They followed Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco outside just as Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters were coming out of the Forbidden Forest. At first, George could not see Lydia but then he saw Hagrid holding something, no, someone, in his arms. From where he was stood, he could almost see her. He could almost see her glasses, her ridiculous hair and the not-quite engagement ring that would never become a true engagement ring.

“Lydia...no..” George whispered, and he dissolved into sobs again, clinging onto Percy for support.

“Lydia Potter, your saving grad, was killed when she was found running away from. The battle. She was more than prepared to leave you all to perish,” Lord Voldemort said, “Now, join my ranks, or die,”

All George really wanted to do was shout at Voldemort for how wrong he was. He wanted to make sure that every single person know that Lydia Potter was not a coward. She would never leave anyone behind to die and yet he could not get the words out.

For a while, George lost track of what was happening. He could not pay attention to anything that Voldemort was saying and he couldn't even look over in shock when Neville walked forward. His eyes were planted firmly on the ground and he could no longer look over at Lydia. He forced his eyes shut and tried to think of happier times; he remembered the look of triumph on Fred’s face after he pranked the Slytherin Quidditch team and how he had thrown a party in Gryffindor common room just because he could, he remembered the look that Lydia gave him when he told her that he and Fred were dropping out of school. And he remembered the things that he loved about the most; he remembered Fred’s raucous laughter and how he could cheer anyone up just by saying one word. He remembered the way Lydia's whole face lit up when she smiled and how her muttered sarcastic comments used to be enough to get him through a bad day.

And now he was faced with the hardest days of his life. He would never hear Fred’s laughter again and he would never be able to turn to his twin to cheer him up. He would have to learn to live with never seeing Lydia's bright smile and find some other way to get through a bad day. Unless, of course, he didn't survive the war. Lydia might have been dead, but the fight was far from over. He supposed that now, dying wouldn't be too bad. The thought of death had terrified him for months and months, but now that he was surrounded by it, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

“LYDIA? WHERE’S LYDIA?”

Hagrid's yell caused George’s head to snap up and he looked over at him. Lydia was no longer in his arms. George spun around to look at Harry, who was frozen on the spot, looking around. Even Lord Voldemort seemed to have been caught off guard.

“ _Accio Sorting Hat_!” A voice that George would recognise from anywhere yelled.

“Lydia!” George exclaimed, grabbing Percy and pointing over to where, inexplicably, Lydia Potter was stood. Holding the Invisibility Cloak in one hand and her wand in the other, she was smiling in a way that told George that now, Voldemort had no chance, “Lydia! She's alive - Merlin, she's not, she's not-”

“GREAT HALL!” Harry roared.

George tried to run towards Lydia, but Bill grabbed the back of his jacket and yanked him back, pushing him towards the Great. He tried to get another look of her, but she had disappeared again. Had they seen a ghost? Lydia didn't seem the type to come back as a ghost, but then again, she was amazingly unpredictable.

Bill shoved him into the corner of the Great Hall and fixed him with a hard stare, “Listen to me, George, I don't know if Lydia is alive or what, but you can't let this distract you. We have to keep fighting. Don't think about her. Just keeping on fighting,”

“I'm always thinking about her,” George said.

Bill’s facial expression softened, “let's do this for Fred, yeah?”

“For Fred,”

George drew his wand and ran straight back into the battle, immediately joining Lee who was duelling Dolohov, and winning. Together, they rugby tackled him to the floor and then Peeves swooped out of nowhere, dropping an entire potted plant onto his face.

“Thank-you, Peeves!” George called up to him.

“Anytime, Mr Weasley!” Peeves cackled, saluting him and then swooping towards some Death Eaters and causing them to scatter like mice.

Suddenly, the floor came to a grinding halt. George watched in amazement as his mother brought Bellatrix to her knees like it was nothing and then, even more amazing, Lydia Potter walked into the Great Hall. Gasps rose up around the room and George almost collapsed.

“Alright?” she said, as though she had not just returned from the dead.

“I killed you,” Voldemort said, and George was pleased to hear that even he sounded quite shocked, “How are you here?”

Lydia shrugged, “I guess it's a Potter thing. You try and kill us but then we just come back,”

“It all ends here, Tom,” said Harry, walking forward, “It's between me and you,”

“You dare call me that name?” Voldemort hissed.

“Yes, because that is who you are and who you will die as,” Harry replied.

“I will never die!”

“You will. We got the Horcruxes, Tom. We worked it all out,” Harry smiled, “Lydia was the Horcrux you never meant to make. In killing her, you killed a part of yourself. You're as mortal as any of us now,”

George looked over at Lydia, frowning. He could not understand how she had been a Horcrux all this time and none of them had ever noticed. She caught his eye and winked. Maybe, he thought to himself, the days after today wouldn't be so bad. He looked back over at Harry and Voldemort just as the duel ended and Tom Riddle died a mortal death.

“I wish you could see this, Freddie,” George whispered, looking up at the enchanted ceiling as cheers filled the room.

“George,” a quiet voice said.

He looked over and felt himself smile. Lydia had managed to escape from the crowd and was stood before him. She looked tired and there was a brand new scar on her neck, where Voldemort had tried to kill her for the second time. When her hand went to cover it, George looked away.

“I love you,” George said, realising that he never said it enough, “I love you, so much,”

Lydia’s lip trembled slightly and she nodded, “I love you. I'm sorry I went. I'm sorry i didn't say goodbye,”

“You're back, Lyds, and that's all that matters,” he said, kissing her, “Promise me you’ll never go again?”

“Never,” Lydia promised.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love George so much that I thought I'd do a little thing for him. 
> 
> There's gonna be two more parts to this because I really do love him that much. 
> 
> Thank-you for reading! 
> 
> -E.


	9. Lily Daphne Weasley

** Lily Daphne Weasley, aged 6 **

Lily was vaguely aware that her mummy and daddy were famous. Sometimes she sat and thought about it, trying to work out why so many people knew their names. Mummy was famous because she a Quidditch player, but sometimes when they were at the park people would point at the scar on her face and come up to her, shaking he hand and thanking her for everything she did.

“What have you done?” Lily would ask.

She would just smile at her and stroke her hair, “me and Uncle Harry got rid of an evil man a long time ago. You’ll know when you're older,”

Daddy was famous because, as far as she was aware, he was the funniest person in the whole entire world. Mummy was funny sometimes and Uncle Ron always knew how to make her laugh, but there really wasn't anyone funnier than Daddy. Sometimes he would set fireworks off in the garden, even when there wasn't anything to celebrate or would fill the whole living room with a swamp, just because he could. But then, people would also come up to him in the street and thank him for everything he did.

“What did you do?” Lily would ask.

“I helped mummy and Uncle Harry,” was all he would ever say to her.

Sometimes, when she was out with Uncle Harry and Uncle Draco, she would notice people giving them funny looks. One day, they had taken her out for breakfast with Teddy and Fred. James was being generally annoying and Ruby was not taking any notice of anything because she was so tired.

“I think I want like...every piece of food on the menu,” Teddy muttered. He groaned, “I hate the full moon,”

“At least you don't turn into an actual werewolf,” James said, throwing a packet of sugar at him.

“But if I did, I could rip your head off when you're annoying me,”

“Teddy, can you please not threaten to rip your cousins head off in public,” Uncle Harry said, “it's generally frowned upon,”

“I'll do it in private then,” Teddy said, winking at Lily as he poured salt into James’ drink when he wasn't looking.

“Sorry, we can't serve you,”

Lily looked over at the waitress who was hovering awkwardly at the end of the table. Uncle Harry dropped the menu he was holding and looked up at her, his eyebrows raised.

“You can't serve us?” He asked, “Is there a problem in the kitchen?”

“No,” the waitress said, “it's him,” she jerked her head towards Uncle Draco, “We don't serve his kind,”

“I don't know what you’re talking about,” Harry said lightly, picking the menu back up, “What is it that you said you wanted to eat, James?”

“I'm not joking. You really do need to leave,” the waitress said boldly, “We don't serve Death-”

“Let's just go,” Uncle Draco said, jumping up, “We can go to the Leaky Cauldron instead,”

“No!” Harry exclaimed, “there's no reason we shouldn't be able to eat here!”

“Harry, dear, let's just leave,” Uncle Draco said, slightly pink in the face, “Come on, you lot,”

In a stunned silent, they all quickly got up and left the cafe. Though, they didn't do so until Uncle Harry had shouted a bit more and then somehow managed to get them all banned for life. James and Ruby were both staring up at Uncle Draco, who was staring at the floor. Lily looked up at Draco and tugged on his hand.

“Why didn't that lady like Uncle Draco?” she asked.

He looked uncomfortable, “because...because....” He glanced over at Uncle Draco who sighed.

“Because I wasn't always the nicest of people, Lils,” he said.

Lily frowned at him, “but you are nice! You're my uncle!”

Draco smiled at her, “I'm not everyone's Uncle though,”

** Lily Daphne Weasley, aged 11. **

When Lily got older, she understood why her parents were famous. She understood why her mum had one extra scar than Uncle Harry, she understood what they had done in the war and understood why they didn't speak about it. She understood why her dad didn't enjoy his birthday and why Teddy was always quiet on the second day of May. She also understood why her mum and Uncle Harry never went to Daphne’s Halloween parties, and instead went to see their own parents.

She wasn't stupid, she understood it all, she just didn't like it. The older she got, the more she understood that her family wasn't quite normal. They were not abnormal because Uncle Draco and Uncle Harry were both men or because her dad only had one ear or because Teddy was half-werewolf. No, they were abnormal because they couldn't attend Halloween parties together as a full family, sometimes her mum couldn’t go and get money out of the bank without panicking and her dad would never attend parties at Malfoy Manor. Though, Lily was not always angry about them not going to Malfoy Manor; she loved her Uncle Draco and her cousins, but Lucius Malfoy did scare her slightly.

Something else that Lily was more than aware of was what was expected of her. Her parents constantly went on and on about how they would support all of their children through anything (“Teddy has bright green hair and we’ve never told him to change his hair,” George said, “We really will support you through anything,”). But Lily already knew all this, she wasn't worried about what her parents thought about her, she was worried about what people at Hogwarts would think about her. They would hear her last name, be shocked at how much she looked like her mother and then begin the dreaded comparison: Lydia Weasley was the saviour of the Wizarding world turned professional Quidditch player, and George Weasley was the Hogwarts dropout turned successful businessman who continued fighting even after his brother and fiance died.

And then, of course, there was the case of her names. When Lily was eight years old, she had asked Lydia what her mum was like. She froze in the act of tying a letter to Teddy’s owl, Moony. She didn't turn around straight away and only did when she had watched Moony fly out of sight.

“I'll be back in a minute,” Lydia said quietly.

At first, Lily thought that she had done something wrong but then Lydia came back into the room, carrying a photo album that Lily had never seen before. She sat next to her on the couch and placed the album on her knee.

“When I was sixteen and Grandad James was still alive, I spent the summer at his flat and he decorated one wall of all these pictures. Some of them I'd never seen before. Before Harry and I sold it, we took all the pictures down and put them in here, just so we could look at them sometimes,” Lydia said, she opened the album and flicked through it until she found the picture that it was looking for. Lily bent closer and looked at it, a young woman with dark red hair was grinning at the camera, a man who looked an awful lot like Uncle Harry was stood with his arm around her, smiling at her.

“That's my mum and dad,” Lydia said, “Lily and James,”

“She's pretty,” Lily said.

“She was very pretty,” Lydia nodded, “and one of the nicest people in the world. Everyone loved her. You know Professor Slughorn, Fred's potions Professor?”

“The man that Teddy said looks like a walrus?”

Lydia nodded and laughed, “she was his favourite student, ever. He talked about her years after she had died. He still talks about her now, actually,” she smiled, “she was also very brave, so brave. She died for Uncle Harry and I. So did my dad,”

They spent the rest of the day looking at pictures of Lily and James, and Lily lapped up every piece of information that she was given. She knew that her grandparents had once existed, but they just seemed very far away, no matter how often her mum and Uncle Harry told her that they were always watching over them.

And then, of course, there was her Godmother, Daphne. Lily loved being able to spend time with Daphne. She always took her shopping and when they had sleepovers, she would paint her nails and do her hair whilst her three year old daughter, Maya, ran rings around Orville.

Lily wasn't sure she would ever be able to be anything like Daphne. She'd heard all the stories about how she was always nice to Lydia even though no one else ever was and how in her seventh year at Hogwarts, she had put her life on the line and been the only Slytherin to do so.

And, as Lily lay in bed the night before she went to Hogwarts, she wasn't sure how she was meant to live up to either of these people. Or how she was meant to be like her mum, or her dad, or her Uncle. She couldn't even fathom trying to be like Aunt Hermione because, as Uncle Ron said, “she’s too clever for her own good!”.

Unable to sleep, Lily pulled herself out of bed and slowly walked to Teddys room. He would know how to not make her calm down. When she knocked on the door, he opened his eyes and furrowed his brows.

“Lils? It's past midnight. What's wrong?” He asked groggily.

“Scared about tomorrow,” she said quietly.

He beckoned her over and she crawled into bed next to him, trying not to cry. She really had never been so worried about something in her whole life. As excited as she was to start at Hogwarts, Lily couldn't shake all the things that James had said to her.

“Everyone's scared on their first day,” he said, “but you’ll love it. I promise,”

“What if I'm in the wrong house?”

“Are you scared about being put in Slytherin?”

Lily nodded.

He laughed quietly, “You don't need to be worried about being in Slytherin. There's nothing wrong with being in Slytherin. Mum was in Slytherin,”

“People were horrible to her though!” Lily exclaimed.

“That was ages ago though. And people are going to really struggle being mean to you. Uncle Harry works there, Neville works there and loads of our family goes there. There's always going to be someone on your side,” he smiled at her, “and, you know that the moment mum and dad hear about someone being mean to you, they'd be at Hogwarts before you knew it,”

Lily nodded, “I know,”

“Besides, you might end up in Hufflepuff. All the best Wizards do,”

The next morning, Lily was awoken by the sound of running. The door opened and George popped his head through the door. Teddy jumped and sat up, looking around the room as though waiting for someone to pop out of the wardrobe.

“Are we being attacked?” He asked.

“No,” George said, “Your mother convinced herself someone kidnapped Lily and is about thirty seconds from tearing the house apart to find her,”

“No different from usual then,” Teddy muttered, flopping back down and pulling the quilt over his head.

“Oi! Weirdo, she's here!”

Lydia appeared behind George and looked over his shoulder, seeing Lily. She narrowed her eyes for a moment and then smiled.

“Anyone want breakfast?” Lydia asked, trying to mask the awkwardness.

“All of it,” Teddy murmured, “all of it and then a bit more,”

The morning of September 1st was always hectic and Lily could never quite keep up. Fred seemed quite opposed to waking up and even Teddy could not wake him up. The only calm person in the entire house was George, but that was because he was the only person in the entire house who was laid back. Everyone else was always in some sort of state of panic.

Despite Lydia's many yells of how they were running late, they still got to the train station on time. Uncle Harry and Uncle Draco were already there, both in fits of laughter because they had managed to get there before the Minister for Magic. Even though she was nervous, Lily couldn't help but giggle when a very flustered Aunt Hermione turned up five minutes later with Uncle Ron who was looking as though he didn't have a care in the world. He probably did.

“Hello, Minister,” Lydia said seriously, shaking her hand.

Aunt Hermione glared at her, “Don't you start that. Rose has been calling me Minister all morning,”

“That is what you are,” Rose pointed out.

“Not to you!” Aunt Hermione said.

“But to the rest of us lowly citizens...” Harry sighed, “Gone are the days when Hermione Granger was my best friend. Now I can't even look her in the eye because what am I, a humble teacher, compared to the great Minister for Magic?”

“Shut up,”

Someone blew a whistle and Lily jumped, turning round to her parents with wide eyes and trying to think of the best way to get out of going to school.

“Stop panicking,” George said to her, “nothing is ever as bad as you think. Hogwarts included,” he kissed her on the cheek, “You really will enjoy it. I promise,”

She turned to Teddy who grinned and then hugged her, “It doesn't matter what house you're in. Also, read loads of books so that you know how to duel. But don't tell mum I told you that - or do, she probably has some great tips,”

“Teddy stop telling your sister to learn how to duel,” Lydia said. When Lily hugged her she whispered, “Ask Uncle Harry for a book on duelling and say it's for extra work. He's so dim he'd probably give it to you,”

“Lydia, she's going to miss the train!” Uncle Harry called.

“Aware of that!” Lydia said, straightening up, “Ready?”

“Not really,” Lily admitted.

“I'll look after her, mum, don't worry,” Fred said, taking her a hand and pulling her towards the train, “See you at Christmas!”

They found a compartment with James, Ruby, Rose and Hugo. Ruby was tying her Gryffindor tie around her neck and Lily couldn't help but stare at it. Life would probably be easier if she was sorted into Gryffindor. Her mum did always say that her life would probably be easier if she had been sorted into Gryffindor.

“Slytherin is the best house though,” she would say with a wink.

“What house do you think you're going to be sorted into?” Hugo asked, kicking her.

She shrugged, “I don't know,”

“You're going to end up in Ravenclaw,” James said to Hugo. He turned to Lily, “You're definitely in Slytherin,”

Ruby threw an empty chocolate frog wrapper at his head, “Stop scaring her. Or have you forgotten how you cried on your first day?”

“I did not!” James snapped. He glared at his sister, “Gryffindor is the best house anyway. Dad asked to be put there it was so good,”

“Said no one ever...” Rose muttered.

“Says the boring Ravenclaw, all you do is read,” James said.

“Got top marks though, haven't I?”

“And we’re all very proud, Rosie, very proud,” James said seriously.

By the time the train pulled up outside Hogsmeade station, Lily decided that she most definitely did not want to be put in Slytherin. Even Fred could not calm her down when she told him that she was terrified of being put in that house.

“You don't want to be put in Ravenclaw because we have so many stairs to climb. Same with Gryffindor. Too many stairs. So really, your best bet is either Hufflepuff or Slytherin. The Hufflepuff common room was always a bit too yellow for my liking, so I really think your best bet might be Slytherin,”

“If I get put in Slytherin, they’ll compare me to mum even more!” Lily protested.

Fred sighed, “Lils, everyone is going to compare you to mum. Everyone compares me to dad, they even compare me to Uncle Harry. It's inevitable,”

Inside the Great Hall, Lily automatically sought out Uncle Harry at the staff table. He waved at her and Hugo and winked before pretending to be interested in whatever Professor Flitwick was saying. She turned around and looked for the rest of her family, Fred and Rose waved at her from the Ravenclaw table whilst James and Ruby grinned at her from the Gryffindor table. Her eyes were drawn to the Slytherin table and she wondered how her mum didn't collapse out of fear on her first day of school.

Someone tugged at her robes and she turned around to a Gryffindor student, smirking at her.

“You're the other Potter-Weasley kid, aren't you?” He whispered, “You well look like your mum!”

“Leave her alone, Boone!” James whispered down the table.

“I'm just saying she looks like her mum!” He snapped back.

“And you look like a baboons arse but you don't hear us going on about it,” Ruby said.

Lily bit back a laugh and turned back to face the front as someone got sorted into Hufflepuff. Then Hugo’s name got called and there was an outbreak of whispering as the Minister for Magic’s son walked up to the three-legged stool, trembling slightly.

The Sorting Hat was silent for a few moments before shouting, “RAVENCLAW!” And, looking quite relieved, Hugo ran to join his sister who was clapping the loudest of them all.

“Weasley, Lily,”

There was even more whispering as Lily walked up to the three-legged stool. She smiled gingerly at Harry who was holding the mirror up, and even though she couldn't see, she was quite sure that her parents and her aunts and uncles were probably on the other side. She wouldn't even be surprised if her grandparents were there as well.

Professor Flitwick gently dropped the sorting hat on her head and the hall disappeared from sight. At first, the sorting hat said nothing and Lily's heart dropped to her stomach - was there no house suitable for her? Were they about to send her packing?

“I've been in a mind like yours before. Quite interesting, actually...what she went on to become...” It paused, “SLYTHERIN!”

Professor Flitwick whipped the hat off her head and nudged her in the direction of the Slytherin table who were all cheering. Lily glanced behind her at Uncle Harry who was laughing hysterically and she was quite sure that she could hear James shouting, “I TOLD YOU! I KNEW IT!”

When Lily sat down at the Slytherin table and the prefect smiled at her, she supposed that maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

** Lily Daphne Weasley, aged 15 **

“Lily! Are you listening?”

Lily jumped and hit her knee on the underside of the desk, wincing slightly. “Definitley listening, Unc - Professor,”

Uncle Harry glared at her for a moment and then said, “What spell are we talking about?”

“Ugh...ugh...” She glanced at the board but nothing was written on it, “Defensive spells?”

“Specifically?” When she didn't answer he sighed, “Stupefy, Lily, Stupefy,”

“Yep...great spell,” she muttered.

When Uncle Harry began to tell them a story about how his sister used to curse people for the fun of it, Lily zoned out again and resumed doodling onto her parchment. She knew that her OWLs were coming up and she should probably be focusing on passing her exams, but she was having a terrible week and it was only Tuesday.

All anyone ever seemed to speak about was how alike she was too her mother and, maybe more annoying, like Lily Evans. She was quite bored of Professor Slughorn going on about how she looked like his favourite student and was even as good at Potions at her, all whilst going on about how she looked exactly like Lydia and even acted the same. Maybe she wouldn't mind as much if they weren't expecting something amazing from her.

Lily knew that she wasn't as clever as her mother, or as witty. She refused to play Quidditch out of fear that she wouldn't be able to live up to her mother or even Uncle Harry. The fact that she came from a Quidditch family didn't help, either. No one wasted in time in telling her that Uncle Charlie could have played professionally if he wasn't so obsessed with dragons and that Uncle Harry was the greatest Seeker that Hogwarts had ever seen.

The bell rang and Lily was pulled out of her stupor. She pushed her things back into her bag and pulled it onto her shoulder, longing for a very long nap. Next to her, her best friend, Hannah Cherrie, nudged her and nodded to the front of the class. Lily glanced up and managed to suppress a groan as Harry made his way over to her with a look on his face that told her that she was about to be lectured.

“Lily, can I speak to you?”

“Can I say no?”

He raised his eyebrows at her and she sighed and nodded.

“I'll meet you in the Great Hall,” she muttered to Hannah, sitting back down and then looking back up at her Uncle, “Are you giving me detention?”

“No,” he said, perching on the desk behind him, “What's up?”

Lily blinked at him, “Are you making me cut my dinner break short so that we can have a catch up?”

“Stop avoiding the question. What's wrong?”

She glanced at her watch, “How long have we got?”

He smiled slightly, “I know it's hard. I know, everyone expects you to be like your mum and that's kind of impossible because she's so...so...well, you know her,” he smiled at her again, “I worry about you, Lils. You always seem to be holding yourself back. Whenever I read your essays, you're always so close to topmarks but never quite get there,”

“I think you're just comparing me to everyone else,” Lydia said bluntly, “James is funny, everyone loves Ruby, Fred, Rose and Hugo are all really clever. Teddy has a great job and then there's me,”

“You really are your mother's daughter,” he muttered, “why don't you tryout for-”

“If you tell me to tryout for Quidditch I'm going to take a leaf out of my mums book and curse you,”

Harry grinned at her, “you should talk to Professor McGonagall. She always gives the best advice and will also give it to you straight. Promise you’ll speak to her?”

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Lily nodded, “I shall speak to Professor McGonagall,”

“Alright,” he said, jumping off the desk, “I'll see you later. Oh, remember, homeworks due on Thursday,”

“Yeah...yeah...” Lily muttered.

“Everything's going to be fine, Lily,” he said to her.

“That's easy to say when you're Harry fucking Potter,” she muttered as she stormed down the corridor, “everything's fine when you're Harry fucking Potter because you're Harry fucking Potter,”

If there was one trait that Lily definitely shared with her mother, it was how they both got irrationally angry at Harry for no reason from time to time.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I said that I wouldn't write a sequel but then I started writing this a few days ago and it got me thinking about how the kids of Lydia, Harry, Ron and Hermione would really struggle to live up to their parents legacies and all the anxiety that would come with it and then I started thinking about how Lily looks like Lydia and how alike they are and I was like....maybe I should? 
> 
> So, to cut a long story short, I'm writing a sequel? 
> 
> It probably won't be for a while and I don't have a name but I guess I'm gonna have to work out why I want my next gen to be like. 
> 
> (And also sort out the ages because I think I've confused them all, oops). 
> 
> Anyway, thank-you for reading! 
> 
> -E.


	10. Maybe In Another Life

_“When you stand for something, you've got to stand for it all the way, not half way,” -Kevin Gates._

Draco slowly walked up to the drawing room and flopped into one of the armchairs by the fireplace. He stared down at the ring on his finger that bore the Malfoy family crest and wondered whether the wealth was worth it all. He could not deny that the money was nice, but morally speaking he was probably as poor as the beggars that now sat in Diagon Alley. Sighing, he twisted the ring round so that he could no longer see it. Being a Malfoy was all fun and games until the Dark Lord came back, now he was no better than any Snatchers.

There was a scuffle and someone swore very loudly. Draco sat up in his chair slightly, there was something oddly familiar about that voice but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. There was a bag and a yell that Draco might have recognised from the Quidditch pitch. The doors burst open and Draco leapt up, his wand drawn but it was only some Death Eaters. Wishing that he wasn't so paranoid all the time, he shoved his wand back into his robes and went to sit back down, but then his father walked into the room.

“Have you seen who they've brought it?” Lucius asked, chuckling slightly.

Draco looked back over again and stopped himself from gasping. Two Death Eaters had a very firm grip of George Weasley. He had a black eye and blood was boring out of his nose. The only thing that Draco could think about was the fact that once Lydia Potter and Ron Weasley caught wind of this, they'd waste no time in tearing the house down to find him.

“How did they find him?” Draco asked.

“Wasn't hard,” one of the Death Eaters said, “he put up a bit of a fight but you know how they are when they get hit with the Cruciatus Curse,”

Draco glanced back over at George, he looked one more hex away from collapsing.

“Who's this?” Bellatrix walked into the room, twirling her hair around her warm. She laughed, “Is this one of the many Weasley's?”

“George Weasley,” Lucius told her.

She cackled, “Lydia Potter knows him quite well, doesn't she?”

“Engaged,” George whispered.

“You're engaged?” Draco asked before he could stop himself.

“Engaged,” George repeated, “Well, not quite, it's more of a too be engaged thing...”

Lucius smirked, “put him in the basement,”

“Wait!” Draco exclaimed, “Should we not - is it not dangerous keeping him here? What if Lydia comes-”

“That's the point, nephew dear,” Bellatrix said gleefully.

“She’ll put up a fight,” Draco said, quickly. He wasn't really sure why he was trying to protect George. He wasn't sure that they'd ever had a proper conversation.

“We’re not scared of her, Draco, if that's what you're suggesting,” Lucius said, stepping towards him.

“You should be,” George piped up.

As quick as anything, Bellatrix whirled around and slapped him around the face. Draco flinched slightly and looked away as the Death Eaters dragged him down to the basement. Lucius stared at him with narrowed eyes for a moment before sweeping from the room.

“If you carry on the way you are, you’ll be keeping Georgie company,” Bellatrix hissed in his ear.

A braver man than he was would have said that he'd rather do that than support Lord Voldemort. But Draco Malfoy was not brave. He was cowardly and was too busy trying to protect himself.

—-

Since the end of his sixth year at Hogwarts, Draco had lost count of the amount of people who had been held captive at Malfoy Manor. Some were sent straight onto Azkaban, some were left forgotten in the basement and some were killed by his aunt when she got bored. Draco usually pretended that they didn’t exist and it was easier to stay outside when someone was being tortured, but there was something nagging him about George Weasley being down there.

He had started to have reservations about the whole thing when he watched Luna Lovegood being dragged up the driveway he realised how much he hated his family and everything they stood for. Luna, of all people, did not deserve to be held here. And neither did George Weasley because, as much as it pained Draco to admit it, he actually did find him and his brother quite funny.

Though he was well aware of the fact that Lord Voldemort was somewhere within the depths of the house, Draco opened his bedroom door and began to walk to the drawing room. He kept his wand held tightly in his hand but he did not think that is wand would help him against Lord Voldemort if he found out what Draco was about to do.

Quite shocked to find that there was no one guarding the basement, Draco flicked his wand at the lock and slowly walked down the stairs. He could hear whispered conversation but that quickly stopped when he got to the bottom of the stairs and he suddenly remembered that he was as probably welcome here as he was in Gryffindor Tower.

Mr Ollivander was huddled in the corner of the room looking as weak as ever and Luna was knelt next to him, tipping water into his mouth. George was stood in the middle of the room, glaring at him so fiercely that Draco actually backed away from him slightly.

“You are genuinely the biggest dickhead in the whole world, you know that?” George snapped, “You were an absolute fuckwit in school but even I thought that this would be too low even for you,”

“Language, Weasley,” Draco said, trying to sound as much like his old self as he could.

“Language?” George exclaimed, “You've locked us in a fucking basement and you have the nerve to have a go at me about my language?”

“I'm sorry,” Draco said quickly.

“You're sorry? You’re - wait, what? You're sorry?” George asked, clearly shocked.

“Yes,” he said earnestly, “I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. I never wanted any of this,” he gestured around the room, “I never wanted to be a Death Eater. I never wanted to...I don't even believe in anything my family does. Please, you have to believe me,”

“I’m really struggling to believe you, I'll be honest,”

“I believe you,” a soft voice said from behind George.

George sighed, “Luna, come on, it's Malfoy,”

Luna looked over at Draco and then nodded, “I know, but I believe him. What is he gaining if he comes down here and helps us? If anyone was to find out, he’d be killed,”

“But he could be doing it on someone else's orders,” George pointed out.

“Well, if he was, then Harry and Lydia would just come for him, wouldn't they?” Luna said, serenely, “The Death Eaters aren't as stupid as we think. They’re all scared of them. Even You-Know-Who will be scared of them,”

It took a few weeks, but Draco eventually won over George’s trust. Draco was completely powerless to help them, but that didn't mean that he wasn't trying to help. When he could, he delivered news that he heard on Potterwatch. A strange but enjoyable radio station that George told him about. The only thing that was ever said about the Potters was that they had not been seen or heard of, but that news alone was enough to keep George from trying to kill him. He was also putting his life on the line by stepping in whenever someone tried to torture George or Luna. Most of the Death Eaters got angry when he stopped them, but he was sure that they would manage to blow of steam elsewhere.

The day that Draco knew that George fully trusted him was when he handed over Fabio the Pygmy Puff.

“Just look after him,” George said quietly, “Lydia would kill us all if something happened to him,”

“Lydia would kill us all if something happened to you,” Draco said, “but I'll look after him, I promise,”

\---

“Draco! Draco!”

He rolled his eyes and opened his bedroom door to find his father stood outside, looking quite frantic.

“What?”

“The Potter boy! They've found him!”

Draco's heart dropped to his stomach and then the room began spin slightly. They couldn't have him. Not Harry. They’d kill him. There was no way that even he would be able to get out of this one. Before he could even begin to fathom the thought of him being killed, Lucius began marching down the hall and Draco was already forming a plan in his head.

“I'll be there in a minute,”

When he was sure that his father was as far away from him as possible, he ran to his father's study and broke the lock. Without even caring about how much noise he was making, Draco ransacked the room until he found George’s wand. Luna's was nowhere to be seen but an extra wand was better than none.

The drawing room was empty when he got there, and his heart was beating out of control. He sat down in one of the armchairs, his heart beating out of control. It had been months since he had saw Harry and he did not trust himself to react to seeing him again normally.

The doors of the room banged open and Draco closed his eyes. He felt his mother brush her hand against the top of his head and wondered how much she knew about he and Harry. He had never told her about their relationship, of course, but he was not stupid enough to think that his own mother wasn't at least vaguely aware that he was gay.

“Well?” Lucius asked, “Is it him? Is it? That's definitely the Weasley and the Mudblood!”

“He looks strange,” Narcissa said, “As though he's been hit by a stinging hex,”

“Not a stinging hex,” someone said, and Draco immediately knew that it was Harry, “it was something in the forest. I fell over,”

“Draco went to school with them! He’ll know!” Lucius exclaimed. Before he could fight back, a hand closed around his arm and dragged him to the middle of the room. Harry was sat on the floor, tied with Weasley, Granger, Dean Thomas and a Goblin. And though his face was swollen, there was no doubt that it was in fact Harry.

“Well, Draco? Is it him?” Lucius persisted.

But Draco was not listening to a thing that his father was saying. All he could do was stare at Harry. They had not been this close since they were both at school, and it took every ounce of willpower that he owned to not lean in for a kiss. That would probably be the quickest way to get them both killed.

“Is it him?” Lucius repeated.

“I can't - I can't be sure,” Draco stammered.

“Look closer!”

“I don't think it is! His sister would be with him!”

“I definitely saw another one with black hair,” one of the Snatchers said, “she ran right past me. Couldn't tell you if it was his twin or not though. But she did look kinda-”

“What are you holding?” Bellatrix asked suddenly.

“Ah, this?” The snatcher said proudly. He held up a sword, “I found it in their tent. I think I'm gonna keep this after-”

There was a whip like crack as Bellatrix sliced her wand through the air and the Snatcher fell to the floor.

“That is not yours! That was in my vault at Gringotts! They must have broken in!” She shrieked.

“We have a Goblin! Why don’t we ask?” Lucius suggested.

“Yes! Get the Goblin! Get-“

“I'm sorry, Bella, but apparently there’s been traces of magic on Privet Drive,” Narcissa interrupted, “That's where the Potters lived with those muggles,”

“Lydia,” Draco said, “That's where she is. I'll go and get her,”

“You can't go on your own,” Narcissa said.

His eyes scanned the room and his eyes fell on the Snatcher who was holding some wands, “I’ll take him with me,”

The Snatcher looked momentarily shocked but followed him anyway. When they got outside of the gates, Draco gripped his arm and Apparated to the first place he thought of; the forest where the Quidditch World Cup had been held. The Snatcher look around.

“Uh, Mister Malfoy, I don't think-”

“ _Stupefy_ ,”

The Snatcher flew back against a tree and fell to the ground, unconscious. At once, Draco hurried forward and grabbed the wands before Apparating to Privet Drive. He had only been there once, and that was the previous July when he had been patrolling the skies in the hopes of getting a glimpse of Harry. Now that he was on the ground, he wasn't exactly sure where he was meant to be going but he tried to put himself in the shoes of Lydia Potter. The only problem with that was that she wasn't very predictable.

“Um, excuse me? Excuse me!” He called to a muggle walking down the street towards him, “Sorry, you haven't seen my friend have you? She’s quite short, glasses, dark hair..” He searched around in his mind for something that would make her look more distinguishable, “she probably looks quite angry,”

The man paused for a moment and then nodded, “Has she got a scar on her face?”

“Yes!” Draco exclaimed, wondering why he hadn't have thought to lead with that, “Yes. That'll be her,”

He nodded, “I saw her in the fields near here. She looks quite troubled,”

“Ah, yes, well, that's Lydia she's...she’s always in some sort of trouble,” Draco said, trying to sound like a normal person, “Thank-you for your help,”

“I hope she has a better day!” The man said to him before he hurried off.

“She really won't,” Draco muttered.

It took him almost ten minutes, but he finally found her. Her hair was greasy and her clothes ripped. If anything, she looked quite ill and he almost suggested that she go to a safe house somewhere but then quickly stopped himself. There was no way she would trust him that easily.

“Help me! Help me! I'm in the fields behind Privet Drive! Help me!”

Draco frowned at her. Why on earth was she talking into a mirror? Perhaps she had lost her mind from being on the run for so long.

“Wait! Did you hear me? The others have been-”

“Have you finally cracked, Potter?” He asked, “why are you talking into a mirror?”

He realised how stupid he had been when her wand was in his face. The last thing he wanted to do was get on the wrong side of one of Lydia Potter’s curses.

“Stupe-”

“Wait!” And he was surprised that she actually did, “I want to help you,”

“You want to...what?”

“I want to help you,” he said, “I - I know I've been a pit of a prat in the past and I want to put it all behind him. I don't agree with anything my family say. I want to help you,”

“And I can trust you because?”

He inwardly groaned. Why did everything in his life have to be so damn hard all the time?

“Because George does,” he said. He reached into his pocket a took Fabio out. Lydia stared at his hands for a moment as though she wasn't quite sure what she was seeing, but when the Pygmy Puff squeaked, she rushed forward and scooped him up into her hands. “When he was brought in, he had Fabio in his pocket and he gave him to me-”

“He's alive?” Lydia asked, “George? He’s alive?”

“Yes, and so is Harry, Granger and Weasley. They're at Malfoy Manor but if you don't hurry up-”

There was a loud crack and Lydia jumped. She seemed to be a lot more jumpy than from the last time Draco had saw he. He supposed that was what happened when you were on the run from the Dark Lord. Draco looked around and, to his surprise, he saw Dobby the House-Elf. He was wearing two mismatched socks and those jumpers that Lydia used to get every Christmas.

“Lydia Potter! Mister Malfoy is a bad wizard! Is he bothering you? If he is, I can hurt him for you!”

Immediately, Draco took a step back from Dobby but Lydia stopped him.

“No! No, Dobby, he’s on our side-”

“Dobby doesn't like to insult Miss Potter, but Dobby thinks that she might have lost her mind The Malfoy’s are bad wizards-”

“Dobby, listen to me,” said Lydia quickly, “Harry, Ron, Hermione and George are at Malfoy Manor and I need to get to them, regardless of who I have to work with,”

“I understand, Miss Potter!” Dobby cried.

“They're in the basement,” Draco said, feeling as though it was safe for him to talk, ‘Mr Ollivander, Luna Lovegood and Dean Thomas are also there. I only have George’s, Weasley's and Harry’s wand,”

Dobby took the wands and disappeared with a loud crack. Not wanting to waste anymore time, Draco turned to Lydia and held out his hand but, as she usually did, she scowled at him.

“I'm not holding your hand,”

“Potter-”

“You know you broke Harry's heart?” Lydia said, gripping onto his wrist instead.

He could not bring himself to look at her, “I know,”

“Remember when I punched you in third year?” She asked.

He managed to not sigh, “Vividly,”

“I can punch even harder now,” she said, rather matter-of-factory.

“Lovely,”

They Apparated back to Malfoy Manor and without even considering the fact that Lydia would be shocked at the size of the house, Draco tried to pull her along but she seemed rooted to the spot. Draco was not patient at the best of the times, and now he was so impatient that he would have helped but he would Imperio her if it meant she paid attention to what was happening.

“You live here?” She asked.

“Yes, Potter,” he said, yanking on her arm, “Now come on!”

“Sorry! It's just that some of us grew up in a cupboard under the stairs and some of us grew up in a fucking castle!”

Draco tutted and ragged her through the gates and up the driveway. He immediately regretted her doing so when he heard her swear under her breath at the sight of the peacocks lazily walking up and down.

“Peacocks? You have peacocks?”

“Give me your wand,” he said, completely ignoring her.

“I'm obviously not going-”

“I'll give it to you at the right moment,” he said, resisting the urge to shout at her.

“I'm not giving you my wand!”

“Lydia, please,”

Draco wasn’t sure if it was the use of her first name or the fact that she was too worried about the others, but she handed her wand over and he shoved it into his pockets.

“I’m not lying about punching you in the face,” she said.

“I know,”

Suddenly, someone started screaming and Draco was quite sure that he knew who it was. Before he could turn to Lydia and tell her to calm down, she was already running down the corridor. He managed to grab her before she ran into the room wandless.

“Don't be an idiot,” he said.

He dragged her kicking and struggling into the drawing room. Fenrir Greyback was stood closest to them and Draco held onto her tighter, knowing she would probably try and attack him. When he saw Aunt Bellatrix stood over Granger with her wand aimed at her chest, Draco knew that this would be a long day. Lydia let out an almighty scream and tried to get to Granger, but Draco hauled her backwards again. He accidentally did it too hard and she hit her head against the wall, but could not apologise because his father walked over to them.

“You found her! Well done, son,”

“Yes, well, it wasn't too hard,” Draco replied smoothly, refusing to look at Lydia, “There's been a lot of threats of violence,”

“Her father was the same,” Lucius said flippantly, and Draco immediately wished that he hadn’t.

“You don't know a thing about my father!” Lydia spat.

“And you do?” Lucius asked softly, “You only knew him two years, and you spend the last year of his life arguing with him constantly,”

Draco knew what was going to happen before it did and he didn’t really know why he didn’t try to stop her. Lydia launched herself at Lucius and dragged him to the floor, drawing her fist back to punch him. Finally, Draco decided to intervene.

“Finished?” Draco asked, his hand closing around her wrist and dragging her up.

“I haven't decided yet,” Lydia muttered.

“If the Mudblood won't tell me where she got the sword then maybe Potter will,” Aunt Bellatrix said, slowly walking towards her, her wand outstretched.

“I - no,” Lydia said.

Aunt Bellatrix narrowed her eyes at he, “What do you mean you don't know?”

“Generally when people don't know the answer to a question, they say-”

“Crucio!”

Lydia screamed and collapsed backwards into Draco. He was completely frozen on the spot and suddenly had no idea what he was going to. The plan that he had cooked up suddenly seemed very feeble and he was quite sure that they were all going to die.

“Let's try again shall we- oh, no...actually...” Bellatrix cackled and forcefully grabbed Lydia’s hand, holding it up for everyone to see, “Draco did mention your engagement...”

“It's actually a to-be-engaged sort of situation,” Lydia said, breathing heavily, “It made more sense than just going straight in with the actual engagement,”

“Greyback, go and get the Weasley twin. Let's see how fast she answers then...”

“N-no!” Lydia gasped, “Not George! He has nothing to do with this!”

“Even better,” Bellatrix smiled.

Minutes later, Greyback reappeared dragging George behind him. Draco closed his eyes and could not bring himself to look at George, suddenly overcome with the shame of not being able to save any of them. If George were to be killed, he did not want to be in the same room as Lydia when it happened.

“Lydia!” George exclaimed, “what are you- why are you-”

Greyback shoved him into the middle of the room and he fell to the floor. Lydia yelled and tried to get to him, but Draco shoved her back against the wall, shaking his head. He could tell that she no longer cared about him or what she had to say, but he would not let her blow their cover.

“Now, Potter, tell me - how did you get the Sword of Gryffindor?” Aunt Bellatrix asked, her wand still aimed at George.

“I - I...n-no, you c-can't! S-stop!” Lydia said, “he’s had nothing t-to do with this!”

“ _Crucio_!”

“Wait, not yet, wait, not yet,” Draco whispered in Lydia’s ear as she tried to get to George, “wait, not yet,”

But he could not be heard over the sounds of George screaming. Awful sobs wracked Lydia’s body and it took all the strength in the world for Draco to shove her back against the wall all whilst she kicked and punched every bit of his body that she could reach.

“Wait!” He hissed.

“Potter,” Aunt Bellatrix repeated, “Did you break into my vault at Gringotts and steal the Sword?

“You can't break into Gringotts,” Lydia said, “We wouldn't be here if we tried,”

“You already asked Griphook if it was the real sword, didn't you?” Draco asked, thinking quickly, “And the one they had isn't the real one,”

Aunt Bellatrix turned to look at him and he braced himself to be cursed.

“Did you go into my vault at Gringotts at any point?” Bellatrix shrieked, turning away from Draco.

“No!” Lydia yelled, “We didn't-”

“ _Crucio_!”

George began to scream again and Lydia tried to get him, but Draco held onto her tighter.

“Wait, I’m going to give you your wand in a minute,“ he whispered, though he wasn’t sure she was listening.

The basement door suddenly flung open and Weasley and Harry bust out. Dobby had been successful in his rescue attempt for they were both holding wands. Draco realised that the sight of him holding Lydia back probably wasn’t a happy sight for Harry, and Lydia seemed to notice for she tried to stop him but he clearly wasn’t listening.

“ _Expelliarmus_!” He cried.

Draco's wand flew through the air and Harry caught it. Cursing Potter’s and their knack for duelling, Draco tried not to look as though he was happy to see Harry looking normal again. He was irrationally angry at how _good_ he looked and was distracted by Weasley running across the room and grabbing George. Draco then got distracted again by Harry and Lydia seemingly having a telepathic conversation.

There was a scuffle, a bang and a yell, and then Aunt Bellatrix somehow had ahold of George again.

“Wands down!” Aunt Bellatrix yelled, “Wands down or I kill him!”

“Listen to her,” Harry snapped, “That means you too, Ron,”

There was a clatter as Harry and Weasley dropped their wands to the floor. With as much subtlety as he could, Draco slipped Lydia’s wand into the back pocket of her jeans.

“When I say go, go,” he whispered in her ear.

Draco glanced around the room, his heart beating out of control. Aunt Bellatrix would not hesitate to kill him for putting a toe out of line and after taking one look at his father, he wasn’t entirely that he wouldn’t hesitate either. He locked eyes with his mother who was regarding him in a way that told Draco that she might be suspecting something.

Pushing all cowardly and selfish thoughts to the back of his mind, Draco let go of Lydia.

“One...two...three...NOW!”

She jumped to action almost straight away, drawing her wand so quickly that it was a blur.

“ _Depulso_!”

Aunt Bellatrix was caught off guard and fell backwards. Without any hesitation, Lydia whirled around as two Snatchers walked towards her, their wands raised.

“Expelliarmus!” Lydia yelled.

She caught one of the wands and threw it behind her. Granger seemed to be able to predict her every mood and caught it, running over to where Harry and Weasley were. Lydia ran towards George and pulled him up, shoving him towards the others. Harry disarmed another Snatcher just as he turned his wand on Lydia.

“Draco?” Lydia yelled, looking around.

He ran over to her, “Here!” He sent a curse towards his father, “Oh, no - GRANGER, LOOK OUT!”

Surprisingly, Granger spun around just as Aunt Bellatrix pulled herself off the ground and advanced on her. Draco had not actually expected her to listen to him.

“ _Expelliarmus_!” Hermione said, catching her wand.

“Draco,” Narcissa said calmly, walking towards her son, “Draco, what are you doing?”

“Something I should have done a long time ago,” he said, feeling as though he was about to collapse, “I stand with the Children who Lived,”

“Why, you little-” a peculiar squeaking noise cut Aunt Bellatrix off.

“Dobby, you might want to try turning it the other way,” Draco called to Dobby, who was sat on the chandelier and determinedly trying to unscrew it.

“Ah,” Dobby said, “Thank-you, Mister Malfoy!”

There was an almighty crash and Draco dragged Granger and Weasley out of the way. Aunt Bellatrix was the first to pull herself out of the wreckage of the Chandelier.

“ELF! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!” She shrieked, “WE ARE YOU MASTERS-”

“Dobby has no master! Dobby is a free elf!”

A knife flew through the air towards them as Dobby Apparated away. Draco staggered away from the group and looked around. They were on a beach, probably miles and miles from the Manor but he could still not calm down.

“Georgie, we’re okay,” Lydia said, “hey, look at me...look at me. We’re okay,”

He looked over at them. George was deathly pale and slumped against her, tears streaming down his face. He moved towards them, determined to apologise but then he got distracted by Harry shouting.

  
“Dobby!” Harry yelled, “Dobby! No, no...”

He was knelt on the floor, Dobby in his arms. The elf’s breathing was funny and there was a blood stain steadily spreading over his jumper, a knife protruding from it. Draco almost vomited at the sight of it. He had grown up with Dobby and now because of him he was dying...

“D-Dobby,” Lydia said, her voice shaking, “J-just hold on,”

“Such a beautiful place to be with friends...” He said, “D-Dobby is glad he is friends with Harry and Lydia Potter,”

He took one last shuddering breath, and became still.

“This is your fault,” Weasley said.

Draco turned to face him and could not bring himself to argue for he completely agreed.

“And I don't know what you're doing here, but you can fuck off!” He snapped, “You've had my brother locked in a basement for weeks and now you're acting as though you're our best pal!”

“Ron,” Hermione said quietly, “Not now,”

“He's the reason we’re not dead,” Lydia said, “He helped me-”

“ _Stup_ -”

George stepped in between them, “ _Protego_!”

Weasley turned to glare at his brother, “He tortured you!”

“No, he didn't!” George said, “He looked after me when I was there. And then he looked after Luna and Ollivander when they came. He's not his family,”

“I should just leave-” Draco said, refusing to look at Harry. He wasn’t sure if he was happy or not that he was staying silent through this.

“Stay,” Lydia said gently, “You're in as much danger as us now, Draco,”

“I don't trust him,” Weasley said to Lydia.

“And I don't expect you to,” Lydia said, “but, please, Ron, he just turned his back on his family for us. He’s as much of a blood traitor as you are now,”

“I want to bury him,” Harry said when the others had walked up to the cottage.

“OK,” Lydia said, “We can go and-”

“But I want to do it properly. Without magic,”

Lydia nodded, “Of course. I’m sure Bill will have a shovel or something,”

They stood up and Harry turned to look at him. For one wild moment, Draco almost ran over to him to hug him, to kiss him, to apologise to him, to just hold him but he quickly stopped himself. Harry shook his head slightly and turned back to Lydia. Draco hung his head and looked away, waiting until Harry had walked away.

Tears streaming down his face, Draco walked over to Lydia who seemed shocked to see him crying.

“I should give up on him,” he said, angry at himself for crying.

Lydia looked over at him and smiled ever so slightly, “Never give up on love, Draco. It's the worst thing someone could do,”

  
\---

“Draco, can I speak to you?”

He looked up to see Harry awkwardly stood behind Lydia. He raised his eyebrows and then nodded, going to stand up but Lydia shook her head.

“It's fine. You’s stay here, I'm going to stop George from guilt-tripping Bill,” Lydia said.

Harry smiled at his sister and then sat down, staring at his hands. Draco pretended not to notice how far Harry was sitting away from him and stared straight ahead instead, trying to think about something that could break the silence.

“Thank-you,” Harry said suddenly, “for everything you did,”

“Oh, you know, it's nothing,”

Harry turned to look at him, “don't be modest. Turning your back on them...It's a pretty big deal,”

Draco nodded and then looked away from him, wondering if they would address the elephant in the room. He certainly didn't want to be the one to bring up. He had not forgotten what Lydia had said about how he had broken his heart.

“I really like you, Draco,” Harry said, “but...” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, “we’re not exactly living in a time where we can start new relationships, are we? Lydia and George are lucky,”

“I know,” Draco replied, refusing to cry in front of him, “I know. Maybe we were never meant to be. I'm the Death Eater who nearly killed Dumbledore and you're The Boy who Lived,

“Yeah...” Harry said, “Maybe in another life...”

“If we ever get one,” Draco pointed out.

“I'm sorry, by the way, for that duel-”

“Forget it, Harry,” he said, “I think what I did that year might be worse,”

Harry turned to look at him and smiled in a way that made Draco want to spend at least the next five days kissing him, and quickly looked away before he did something stupid and tried to spend the next five days kissing him.

Maybe in another life.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did not mean for this to be so long. I have no idea what happened. 
> 
> Thank-you for reading, though!
> 
> -E.


	11. George, part 2.

The only thing Lydia ever seemed to talk about was funerals.

“I'm going to Lavender’s funeral today,” she would say, walking into the room wearing black robes that made her look older than she did. He would never reply. He never knew what to say to her.

“It's Professor Babbling’s funeral today,”

He would look at her and nod. She would look at him as though urging him to say something but he could not find it in her to say anything. So she would just kiss him on the cheek, brush the top of his head her with her hand and then leave. And then she would come back home hours later, exhausted and he would still not say anything to her as she crawled into bed and disappear under the covers until it was time to go to the next one.

“They’re burying Colin Creevey today,” she said, the bags under her eyes deeper and darker than ever.

That one really hurt him. He felt his heart shrivel a little when he thought about Colin Creevey who would run around Gryffindor tower with his camera in hand, taking pictures of everything he laid his eyes on. All the Gryffindors would say that it was annoying, but no one really thought that. Colin always managed to capture the moments that people would treasure forever.

“I’ll be back soon,” she said, her voice barely a whisper and then she was gone.

In the quiet of the flat, George would come out of his shell a bit. Sometimes he would talk to Fred and desperately wait for a reply but it never came. Today, however, he forced himself out of bed and wandered over to where James had plastered the bedroom wall in pictures for Lydia. More than half of them had been taken by Colin Creevey. His eyes came to rest on one taken at Christmas in Grimmauld Place; it was of Lydia and Fred, laughing hysterically whilst James, Sirius and Remus told a story.

Suddenly, he was gripped by unimaginable grief again and he retreated to bed, whispering about how much he wanted to die. This was too much. Life had become a burden that he was unable to handle and that he saw no point in handling. If it weren't for the fact that Ron had opened the door at that exact moment and asked if he wanted a cup of tea, he was quite sure he might have just picked up his wand and got it over and done with there and then.

“It's Remus and Tonks’ funeral today,” Lydia told him. Her voice was shaking.

George looked over at her. She had lost so much weight she looked almost gaunt. Her scar was bolder than ever and the new one, still so fresh, looked almost bright red against her neck. And yet he still thought that she was the most beautiful person in the whole world. He could not say any of this to her and so he just nodded and looked away. She sighed and kissed his cheek, calling for Harry to hurry up in the shower.

The day dragged. George sat upright in bed, staring blankly ahead of him. Since Fred had died, the world seemed to have been drained of all light and laughter. Fred had been the human embodiment of light and laughter, so how could it still exist? How could George still exist without Fred? George had been born second and had never known a world without Fred and going off the world he was living in now, he wasn't sure he liked it. He wasn't sure he wanted to live in it.

Without realising it, George had walked from the bedroom and into the kitchen. The flat was still deserted and the others were still at the funeral. He supposed that there was no better time for it. Feeling as though he wasn't really in control of his actions, but not wanting to stop, he reached into the draw and his hand closed around the handle of a knife. It was only right, he thought as he pressed it to his skin, there was no point in living in a world without Fred.

“Expelliarmus!”

The knife flew from his hand and fell to the floor with a clatter. George sighed and tuned to find Lydia stood before him, her wand outstretched and her eyes wide.

“You should have just let me do it,” he said, blankly.

“No, I shouldn't,” she said, “what kind of person would I be if I let you do that?”

A good person, George thought to himself but he didn't say anything out loud. He just nodded, accepting the fact that he would be forced to live a little while longer and walked past her, barely looking at her. He thought he might have heard her begin to cry as he shut the bedroom door behind her, but could not bring himself to face her again.

Fred’s funeral came around quicker than George wanted it to and before he knew it, he was back at The Burrow, the last place that he wanted to be. The Burrow used to be his safe place. It used to be the one place in the world where he knew, no matter what was happening outside, he would be safe. And now he didn't feel like that because he was stood outside throwing a Quaffle to Harry in an attempt to avoid going inside.

The night before the dreaded day, George sat cross legged on his bed, staring across at the bed that Fred used to sleep in. If he pretended hard enough, he could almost visualise his twin sat there too, flicking through a book describing the best way to make the powerful fireworks. As he stared at the bed, he was vaguely aware of Lydia walking around the room. It was only when she got into bed and placed Fabio next to him that he was properly aware of his surroundings.

“Lydia,” he said.

“Yeah?”

He opened his mouth to speak again but then closed it. Speaking to her was a lot more difficult than he remembered.

“I think I want to die,”

She did not say anything. He did not blame her.

“I wish you hadn't stopped me,” he continued, “I don't think that I'm going to be a good person to be around from here on out,”

“Was I good person to be around at Shell Cottage? Was I a good person to be around last year?”

He did not answer because he didn't want to say the truth. Her previous year at Hogwarts had not left Lydia in the greatest of moods and she was not the most fun person to be around at Shell Cottage, either.

“Exactly,” she said, “I was a terrible person to be around. But you stayed with me. You're always a good person to be around, George, because you are you,”

He had no answer, he just picked Fabio up off the bed and placed him on the bedside table. Feeling terrible for ever bringing that up to Lydia, he turned back around to her, gently kissed her and then pulled the covers over his head with no intention of falling asleep anytime soon.

The funeral passed in a blur. He was not really aware of anything that was happening, even when he was doing the eulogy. It was only when Lydia took his hand when he stood up from Fred’s headstone that the world seemed to come into focus again.

“I still want to get married, you know,” he said to her.

“I do, too,”

“It's just going to take a while,”

“It's OK, George, I know. We have a lot of things to work out first,” Lydia said, wiping her eyes.

“But onwards and upwards, yeah?”

“Onwards and upwards,” Lydia agreed.

\---

“NO, N-NO! G-GET AWAY FROM ME!” George yelled, thrashing around in bed, “GET AWAY FROM ME!”

“Georgie! It's just a nightmare, it's just a nightmare!”

The lamp next to the bed flicked on and Lydia was sat up next to him, gently shaking him awake. He glanced around the room expecting to see Bellatrix Lestrange but she was not there. Of course she was not there. She was the dead. The war was over.

“Just a nightmare,” Lydia repeated, “it's just a nightmare. No one's going to hurt you,”

He was just scared that he would hurt himself.

The trials had passed, George had had panic attack after panic of the thought of Lydia being sent to Azkaban, term had started again and he was stood in the empty flat that he and Fred had shared. Charlie was slowly walking around and trying to clear everything up. Neither of them had mentioned Fred and George hoped that neither of them would. He didn't really want to talk to anyone about anything.

“George,” Charlie said, “there's been a shipment of products and I have no idea what to do with them,”

“Oh, don't worry, Fred usually deals with-” he quickly stopped himself, “I’ll go and deal with it,”

Charlie tried to shout him back but George blocked his voice out as tears burned in his eyes. It was a strange thing, grief. A life changing thing had happened to George, something that he would never fully recover from and yet, sometimes, he genuinely forgot that Fred was dead and would wake up in the morning very confused as to why he was so upset.

Down in the shop, the delivery man was stood by massive piles of boxes and George realised that he wasn't exactly sure what he was meant to do with them all. He stood and stared at them for a while, scratching his head.

“Alright, Fred?” The delivery man said, handing him the invoice to sign.

“Um, George, it's George,” he muttered.

He looked horrified, “Oh, Merlin, I’m sorry, mate. I thought - I thought - I thought...”

“You thought that I'd died?” George said resignedly as he signed the invoiced. He glanced up at him and smiled, “Don't worry, no one can tell us apart,”

The delivery man smiled, “Right, well. See you, mate,”

George stared at the boxes for a while before he took his wand out of his pocket and flicked it at the boxes and they fell into a neat pile in the store room. He dragged himself after them and sat down, pulling out the stock list and seeing what they had left. With Hogwarts re-opening, those who were going back had raided the shop and they had practically nothing left. George sighed and pushed the stock list away from him and turned back to the products. It turned out that running the shop without Fred wasn't much fun. Nothing was much fun without Fred.

Deciding that they had enough products out to tide them over for the day, George opened up the shop, but not before he practiced smiling at himself in the mirror to make sure that he didn't look as depressed as he felt.

\---

It was strange how much could change in a year. One minute, he was worried about whether or not Lydia would survive the school year, then he was worried about whether or not the shop was still doing as well as it had been, and then all of that had to take a back seat because Teddy Lupin came into their lives.

“We have a baby,” George said stupidly.

Lydia turned to look at him and nodded, holding tiny Teddy in her arms, “We have a baby,” she looked down at Teddy and then jumped, as though she was seeing him for the first time, “Oh, Christ, we have a baby! We have a baby! We have a baby!”

“Calm down,” George said hurriedly, “it's fine. We’ll be fine. If mum and dad had seven, we can deal with one,”

It turned out that they could not deal with one. Teddy very quickly seemed to realise that neither George nor Lydia were Andromeda and he didn't seem very happy about it. His wailing sobs echoed around the flat and neither of them knew how to shut up. Fabio did not take kindly to the sudden loudness of the flat and began to cower under the couch, refusing to come out.

“I'm about three hours from joining Fabio under the couch,” George said, over Teddy crying.

“You had two younger siblings!” Lydia exclaimed, “you must know how to shut crying babies up!”

“Lyds, you know me well enough to know that I was probably the reason for babies crying,” George said, just as Teddy hit him in the mouth, “Ouch! Great Merlin, no one tells you about this part,”

Lydia glared at him, “How do you not know about these things? You're one of seven! You should know about these things!”

“I made them cry!” George exclaimed, “I never had to calm them down!”

In the end, they had to go The Burrow and immediately handed Teddy over to Molly. Within ten minutes, Teddy was happily munching on some cut up pieces of apple as though he had never been crying in the first place. Lydia collapsed onto the couch, her hands over her face.

“This is going to be difficult,” she muttered.

“Yes, it will,” Molly said, “but it's also going to be the best time of your lives. You'll miss the sleepless nights when he gets older,”

George stood up to leave the room but Lydia grabbed his hand, “Will you get me a cup of tea?”

“In a minute, I'm going to speak to - um, I’m going to speak to Fred,”

Lydia opened one eye and then nodded, “Say hello for me,”

George smiled at her and walked out into the garden where Fred was buried. With the help of Neville, Ginny had taken it upon herself to make the grave as bright as possible and had planted every type of flower imaginable around it so it was no longer drab and dreary, but bright and, in a strange way, full of life. Sighing, he sat cross legged in front of it and didn't say anything straight away. It wasn't the first time he'd done this, but it didn't make it any easier.

“Hey, Freddie,” he said quietly, “this is...Merlin, this is weird. Well, Andromeda’s died...actually, you probably know that. Wait, do you? I don't - I don't know how death works...um, yeah, well, I guess I'm a dad now,” he paused for a moment and frowned, “and I have no idea how I'm meant to look after a baby. And it's Teddy as well, I mean, you probably worked that one out...yeah, Teddy bloody Lupin...” He laughed, “Poor kids going to have the weirdest life...he's an orphan, a Metamorphmagus and a half werewolf being brought up by me and Lydia...” He laughed quietly, “I just thought I should tell you. It feels weird, you know, not being to talk to you every day, but I guess you're watching down. That's what everyone keeps on telling me, anyway,”

George sighed again and began to tear up the grass at his feet, “I spoke to Lydia about you know...dying,” he wasn't sure why he whispered the word, but it felt right to do so, “she says hi, by the way, and, well, I asked her what it was like and she said that it was quicker and easier than falling asleep...” He paused, “I hope it was quick and easy for you, Freddie, I don't like the thought of you suffering. Getting over grief isn't quicker and easier than falling asleep but...well, that doesn't matter, does it? I think I'm happy, Fred, finally. It's taken me long enough to get here. Still miss you, though...don't think that's ever gonna stop. Still, like I said, I think I'm happy. And, you know, onwards and upwards and all that,”

Later that evening, when they had finally gotten Teddy to sleep at a ridiculous hour of the morning, all George could think about was getting in bed and sleeping for as long as he could. Lydia clearly had other ideas because even when she got in bed, she lay staring at the ceiling, her brows furrowed slightly. Abandoning all hope of ever getting to sleep, George rolled over and nudged her slightly.

“What's up?”

“Nothing,”

“Don't lie. You have the same look on your face that you used to when you realised that you had Potions,” he said, “almost like Christmas has been cancelled,”

This made her smile slightly and she turned her head to face him, “What if...what if we’re like the Dursleys?”

George was taken aback, “Why...why would we be like the Dursleys?”

Lydia shrugged, “I don't know. It's just...Teddy’s a year old and an orphan. That's what me and Harry were!”

“Yes, but the Dursleys are dickheads. We’re not,” George pointed out, “well, we’re nice dickheads,”

“I know but...I don't think they ever set out to be such dicks to us, I just think it happened and...what if it happens to us, George? What if we decide we can't look after him so make him look after himself? What if we make him live in the cupboard under the stairs?”

“Well, first of all, that won't happen. We will be able to look after him. And, as for the cupboard under the stairs...we live in a flat. We don't actually have stairs,”

Lydia rolled her eyes, “You know what I mean!”

“Lyds, you're panicking about something that's never going to happen. We aren't the Dursleys. We’ll never be the Dursleys! And even, if for some weird reason, that happens, don't you think that my mum would realise? Don't you think that Harry would realise?” George said gently, “Teddy is never going to have to worry about anything that you and Harry did, I promise,”

“Not the Dursleys,” Lydia said.

“Not the Dursleys,” George agreed.

After this, she started smiling in a way that she hadn't for a long time. They both did.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daily reminder that I love George Weasley more than I should. 
> 
> Also, I'm very proud of myself for the fact that I've never accidentally posted a chapter to the wrong work, I really thought I would have done that by now. I guess there's time. 
> 
> -E.


	12. Not Alone

_ October 30th, 1981 _

Remus Lupin stood up from the couch and stretched, feeling his bones crack. Already, he could feel his body changing as they approached the full moon. Closing his eyes, he clenched his jaw and tried to focus on anything but the deep throb that he could feel in his limbs. He opened his eyes again crossed to the kitchen window, looking up at the moon. Sometimes he felt quite upset that he could never quite appreciate the beauty of a full moon like the others could.

A pleasant smell suddenly wafted through the tiny flat and Remus knew that Sirius was close by. His heightened senses was perhaps the only good thing to ever come of being a Werewolf. They were especially helpful in times like these. His paranoia getting the best of him again, Remus swept through the flat, looking in every nook and cranny to make sure there was no one untoward lurking where they shouldn't be. He knew that there wouldn't be, but pairing of the war and lycanthropy never did anything good for Remus’ general anxieties about life.

“Shit!”

Remus gripped onto the back of the couch and squeezed his eyes shut as a paralysingly painful headache came out of nowhere. He tried to take deep calming breaths like Madam Pomfrey always advised him to when these headaches came, but he never found it to be very helpful. Swearing, on the other hand, was extremely helpful.

“Fuck. Shit. Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he groaned, “just piss off!”

Strangely enough, his headaches never pissed off when he asked them to, but there was a first time for everything. Instead, he just rolled over the top of the couch and lay back on it, holding a cushion over his face and waiting for it to go away. The cushion smelt of James and it made him feel slightly calmer. The moon was always easier when James, Sirius and Pete were around, but there were now bigger things to worry about than Remus turning into a Werewolf once a month. How things had changed since their school days.

He heard the door open and he knew that it was Sirius. Remus could hear the sound of his jacket sliding off his arms and him kicking off his boots as clear as day, which did not at all help with his headache. He swore a bit more and pressed the cushion harder to his face as though that would help at all. It soon transpired that it was not helping at all and he flung the cushion across the room, almost hitting Sirius in the face when he stepped foot into the living room.

“Am I in trouble or something?” Sirius asked, and although Remus was not looking at him, he knew that he was grinning.

“No,” Remus said opening his eyes, “but my head is,”

Sirius sighed and kissed his forehead lightly, “Do you need anything?”

“A cure to being a werewolf would be lovely,” Remus said.

“You don't need to be cured,” Sirius told him, “You’re perfect the way you are,”

Remus smiled at Sirius and then closed his eyes again. Deep down, they both knew that he was far from perfect, but Sirius liked to act as though he didn't care that Remus was a Werewolf. James, Lily and Pete liked to do the same thing. They acted as though being a Werewolf was an inconsequential as having a cold and that nothing needed to be changed about Remus. After all, all he had was a ‘furry little problem,’ . They might have accepted him and his condition, but that didn't mean that they liked it.

Often, Remus thought about what would have happened if he had been born in a different year, and not ended up in the same dormitory as James, Sirius and Pete. Or he wondered what would have happened if he had been sorted into Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor. Would he had been lucky enough to be placed with classmates as accepting as the best friends he had found, or would they have abandoned him and outed him the moment they found out what he really was.

That night, Remus could not sleep. He lay flat on his back in bed, unable to shake the feeling of foreboding that seemed to have settled in the flat. He was not sure if it was a sign that something bad was going to happen, or if it was the just general feeling of misery that he had been feeling since the war started. Or maybe it was the just feeling of foreboding that he got before every single full moon. He could no longer work out why he was feeling the way he was, and never had the energy to even try.

_ October 31st, 1981 _

“Moony?” Sirius called.

Remus raised his head from where he was lay, trying to work through the deep ache that he was feeling in his bones. They were already prepping to be stretched and broken in just a few days time, and it was never a nice feeling.

“I have some stuff to do for the Order. I’ll be back soon,”

He did not have the energy to ask what he had to do and how soon was soon, so he just nodded his head and dropped his head back down on the bed. Those very simple movements knocked him out for the count and he fell into a deep sleep.

_ November 1st, 1981 _

Remus managed to sleep for almost two days and did not wake up until, annoyingly, moonlight was streaming through the bedroom window. Snarling slightly, Remus dragged himself out of bed and wrenched the curtains shut, but he did so too forcefully and they fell to the ground.

A sudden banging on the front door tore Remus’ attention away from the moon. He took in a deep breath, trying to focus on the scent. It took him a few moment to realise that it was Mary MacDonald and he hurried to the front door, grabbing his wand on the way. Just in case.

He flung the front door open to reveal a sobbing Mary. She was still in robes but her cloak was hanging off her, as though she had put it on in a hurry. Remus stared at her for a few moments, wondering what on earth could make her so hysterical and then remembered the sense of foreboding that had been stalking him for weeks.

“They’re gone,” she choked out, “He killed them! He killed Lily and James! Oh, Remus, they're gone!”

Her words seemed to echo around the entire world, and he could not understand how the world had not ended. Remus’ world had just ended. For the longest time, Remus’ world had just been Lily, James, Sirius and Peter, and now it was shattered and there was no way he would ever be able to piece it back together.

“How?” Remus whispered, “Sirius was Secret Keeper! He never could have..” the realisation seemed to hit him like a tonne of bricks, “N-No! Sirius wouldn't have - Sirius would never, he’d sooner die than give them up...”

Mary seemed at a loss of what to say and she just shook her head, “He must have done, Rem. How else?”

“Where is he?” Remus asked, “where's Sirius?”

“I don't know,” she said, “No one knows. I was with the Order and when the news came through...” She burst into tears again and Remus did not know what to do. What he really wanted to do was slam the door in her face and never speak to anyone again. His head was banging with the sort of headache that he had never had in his life but his heart was aching even more. Lily and James...gone.

“The kids,” Remus said suddenly, “Harry and Lydia-”

“Survived,”

“What?”

Mary shook her head again, “I d-don't know! McGonagall came...she said...something happened and he's dead. Harry and Lydia seemed to have somehow finished him off!”

“Where are they?” Remus asked, reaching for his coat but Mary stopped him.

“You can't go and see them, Remus!” She said, “They’re with Lily's sister and they're staying with her on Dumbledore's order,”

“Her?” Remus snarled, “What is Dumbledore playing at?”

Mary left soon after that and Remus retreated back into the flat. He stood in silence for a while staring around the room. He dropped onto the couch his head in his hands, staring at his knees. There was no way, no way that Sirius could ever...that Sirius would ever...Remus slowly bent down and picked up the pillow that he had flung across the room the other day and pressed it to his face. It still smelt like James.

Then he lashed out. He kicked and punched the walls, launched furniture across the room, smashed the mirror, did everything he could to distract himself from what was going on outside. It was only when he hit the kitchen table so hard that it cracked down the middle that he collapsed to the floor, surrounded by the remnants of the place that he and Sirius had built together.

Awful sobs wracked his body, bringing more pain and anguish than the full moon could ever. James and Lily were gone, and it was all because of Sirius. Sirius, who Mr and Mrs Potter had taken so lovingly under their wing. Sirius, who had always been there when Remus had needed him most. Sirius, who Remus loved more than words could say, had betrayed them all. But that didn't make sense to Remus. He had always gone against the Dark Arts and resented anything that could be connected to the Dark Lord in anyway. He had turned his back on his brother and his family and now...Remus sobbed loudly, gasping for breath.

“Peter...” He muttered to himself, scrambling to his feet, “Pete...need to speak....Pete..”

He could barely speak. All he knew was that he had to somehow get to him, but he had no idea where he was. The four of them had had next to no communication over the last few weeks, but how could they? With the Death Eaters probably watching their every move, they couldn't exactly write letters openly.

Though his entire being was aching and he could not bare to move, Remus pulled himself off the floor, grabbed his wand and left the flat. He Apparated to the first place he thought of, and immediately wished that he hadn't.

A strong wind whipped through Godric’s Hollow, forcing him to pull his cloak tighter around him. The usually quiet cul-de-sac where James and Lily lived was more packed than usual, and he could not work out why. He stared at the crowd that were gathered around the cottage with a slight frown on his face and ten he turned his attention to the cottage itself and almost collapsed again.

The top half of it was completely ruined and it took him a few moments to work out what part of the house had been ruined the most and then he realised, it was the nursery. The broken remains of one of the cots still stood in its place. The wall behind it was crumbling in some places but from where he was stood, Remus could still make out a picture of James and Lily holding their newborn children hanging there, swaying in the wind slightly. He watched it until it fell off the wall, the glass smashing as it hit the ground.

Sirius could not be the reason for this, Remus thought to himself as he stared at the broken remains of the house, Sirius would never be the reason for this. He would not give his family up like this. He would rather die than ever put Lily, James and his godchildren through this.

Bile rising in his throat, Remus scanned the crowd of spectators that were gathering around the house and, once he had determined that Pete was not there, he Apparated again, this time to Diagon Alley. He would find him. He would have to.

Remus had barely started walking down the narrow street before he saw Peter. Or, rather, a picture of him on the front page of the Daily Prophet. Remus snatched a copy of the paper off the vendor who was selling them and read the headline, almost collapsing where he was.

“ ** _THE DARK LORD DEFEATED AT LAST:  
JAMES AND LILY POTTER FOUND DEAD,   
BUT THEIR CHILDREN SURVIVE,”_**

Underneath that, was a subheading.

“ ** _JAMES POTTER BETRAYED BY A MAN HE CONSIDERED A BROTHER:_  
 _SIRIUS BLACK GIVES THE POTTERS UP TO THE DARK LORD,_  
** _KILLS PETER PETTIGREW IN MURDEROUS RAMPAGE_ ,”

“You alright, mate?” The vendor asked, staring at him closely, “You look like you haven't slept,”

Remus ignored him and walked away without paying for the paper, Apparating back to the flat before the vendor could call for him to come back. When he arrived back home, he opened the paper and forced himself to read.

“ _Sirius Black, 22, killed Peter Pettigrew and a further twelve Muggles with just one curse the day after Lily and James Potter were tragically killed by the Dark Wizard He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named._

_Muggle witnesses at the scene, whose memories have now been modified, said that Pettigrew had been shouting, “Lily and James, Sirius! How could you!” Black then reached for his wand and blew the whole street up, including Pettigrew. The witnesses then claim that Black did nothing but laugh hysterically before allowing twenty members of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol and now awaits trial._

_Peter Pettigrew has posthumously been awarded the Order of Merlin First Class and his family have been informed of his death by the Ministry._

_Black attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and struck up a friendship with James Potter in their first year, a friendship that seemingly lasted up until the Potter’s tragic demise. Black was the Secret Keeper for the Potter’s and gave up their location to the Dark Lord, allowing him to find them after they were in hiding for weeks._

_James and Lily are survived by their twin children, Harry and Lydia, who have been orphaned at just a year old. Somehow, these two babies survived the Killing Curse and vanquished He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named for good._

_We do not know where the Potter children are at this moment, but we wish them the best and hope they can one day find peace_ ,”

Remus dropped the paper to the floor and kicked it away from him, turning around and punching the wall again, yelling out in anger. Anger at Voldemort, anger at Sirius, anger at James for picking the wrong Secret Keeper and anger at Pete for ever thinking that he would be able to take on Sirius in a duel and win. Even Remus would not trust his own capabilities to duel Sirius and win.

Unable to deal with everything that he was feeling, Remus retreated into the magically reinforced room that he used to transform in and closed his eyes, willing the Wolf to take over so he could forget everything.

_ November 2nd, 1981 _

Remus could not function without Sirius, James and Pete.

Moony could not function without Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail.

He stayed curled up on the floor after his transformation for a while. It was the worst one he had in years. Blood pooled around him, becoming congealed in his hair. His ribs were definitely broke and his left arm was stuck out at a strange angle. As he lay there in indescribable amounts of pain, he wondered how he was meant to carry on living. He wondered if he should even carry on living.

“Alone,” he murmured.

_ June 27th, 1995 _

They had been thrust back into a war and Remus did not know what to do with himself. He paced up and down the kitchen of Grimmauld Place as Sirius sat at the kitchen table, his head in his hands. The last thing anyone needed was another war. Remus wasn't even sure if he had it in him to fight again. They had no idea what they were really up against, Fudge was refusing to see sense and most of the old Order were dead.

“Can you stop pacing?” Sirius asked.

“Sorry,” Remus said, sitting next to him, “I just - I can not fight in another war,”

Sirius looked up at him, “Do you think we have choice?”

“When have we ever had a choice in anything?”

“Never,” Remus said, “it's just nice to pretend sometimes,”

The kitchen door opened and Dumbledore walked in, looking unusually grave. Automatically, Remus’ blood ran cold, bracing himself for terrible news. Images of Harry and Lydia’s body lay under a Dark Mark.

“What is it?” Sirius asked, clearly accepting the worse as well.

“I need to speak to you both about something,” he said, “James Potter has returned from the dead,”

At once, Sirius burst into laughter and even Remus couldn't help but laugh along. The very notion that James could possibly be alive was ridiculous. He'd been dead for almost fifteen years. When Remus looked back over at Dumbledore and saw that he wasn't smiling, his heart missed a beat.

“You are not being serious, are you?” Remus asked.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and took a seat at end of the table, interlocking his fingers.

“In the early hours of yesterday morning, James Potter burst into my office. Tired, confused, but most definitely alive,” Dumbledore said, “he told me that he awoke in the remains of the Potter Cottage at Godric's Hollow. He then proceeded to Apparate to Hogwarts and came to find me immediately. I have no reason to believe that he is lying,”

Sirius snorted, “No reason to believe that he's lying? Dumbledore, he's been dead years! There's no spell to reawaken the dead,”

“It is not a spell as such, let me explain...the night Lord Voldemort returned, Cedric Diggory was murdered in a senseless act of violence. When Harry and Lydia duelled Lord Voldemort, echoes of those who died presented themselves to them. Cedric Diggory was one of them, and he asked for his body to be taken back to his parents. Despite their situation, Harry and Lydia still managed to do this and so they were rewarded,”

“Rewarded?” Remus asked.

“They did a good deed. A deed, I might add, that others would have ignored given the circumstances. Most would just focus on getting themselves away from Lord Voldemort, but Harry and Lydia, ever selfless, wanted to do what they could for poor Cedric Diggory,” Dumbledore explained calmly, “A male soul, for a male soul,” he looked at the two of them and smiled, “perhaps it would be best for you to see him yourself,”

He stood up from his chair and left the room. The moment he was gone, Remus turned to Sirius and shook his head. Dumbledore seemed to have finally cracked. None of what he had said made sense.

“Whoever is about to walk through that door is not..” Sirius trailed off, his eyes going wide at the sight of James Potter walking through the kitchen door, “James...”

Remus stared at him. He certainly looked like James and was doing that annoying thing of running his hand through his already messy hair. It took Remus all the willpower in the world to not slap his hand and tell him to stop messing with his hair, because it was his most annoying trait. Remus sniffed slightly, he even smelt like James. But, he reminded himself, Dark Magic could achieve anything these days.

“Not him,” Sirius said, folding his arms.

“Pads,” James said, “it is,”

“Don't call me that,” he snapped.

James looked momentarily offended but took a step back, almost cowering behind Dumbledore who was looking between the three of them with a look of what might have been amusement on his face.

“It's a bit strange, don't you think? How Voldemort returned two days ago and suddenly James Potter is back from the dead?” Remus said, “it's almost as if this is one of Voldemort's sick plans to kill us all!”

“That was my initial thought,” Dumbledore told him calmly, “but I have carried out every single test that I possibly could to ensure that this man is in fact James Potter,”

“Every single one?” Sirius asked.

“Every single one,” Dumbledore said, “you both trust me, don't you?”

They both nodded.

“Then you must believe that you've both got your best friend back,” Dumbledore said, his blue eyes twinkling again, “I think you have some catching up to do,”

None of them moved until they heard the front door snap shut behind Dumbledore. Remus stood and stared at James, his head cocked to the side slightly. He looked extremely uncomfortable and seemed unable to meet their eyes. Finally, James spoke.

“Been up to much since I've been, you know, dead?”

“Azkaban,” Sirius said indifferently.

“Depressed,” Remus told him.

“Ah,”

They were silent for a little while longer and then, forever in sync, they enveloped each other in a massive hug, all laughing hysterically.

Not alone, Remus thought to himself.

  
_ June 18th, 1996 _

“Crucio!”

Remus whirled around as Lydia started to scream. She fell to the ground and rolled away from Harry. Behind him, he heard James roar at Bellatrix and ran towards her just as she tried to curse Harry. Remus ran after him, his eyes scanning the room, making sure that no Death Eater ambushed James. But Tonks getting hit in the chest with a jinx distracted him and he changed course at the last minute, stooping down to pick her up.

“Are you OK?” He asked her hurriedly.

“Fine,” she groaned, “it was nothing,”

Lydia screamed again and Remus spun around. James was lay limp on the floor and Remus scrambled towards him just as Lydia jumped up, brandishing her wand. His hand closed around her wrist and he felt his pulse beating steadily. A wave of relief flooded over him and he whispered, “Rennervate,”. James took a great big breath and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

“Fuck me,” he muttered, “that was awful,”

Remus helped him up and they looked over to where Lydia and Harry were just as Bellatrix raised her wand. At once, they both started forwards but quickly stopped as Sirius threw himself in front of Bellatrix’s wand. The spell hit him in the chest and he looked shocked for a moment before falling back and disappearing through the veil.

“Sirius?” Lydia said weakly, moving forward, “Sirius!”

Bellatrix began to cackle loudly and the sound infuriated Remus, but he paid her no attention. He just stared at the veil, expecting Sirius to come out from the other side as though nothing had ever happened, but he knew that it would not happen. He knew that Sirius was gone. Before anyone could do anything, Bellatrix had taken off running and Harry was right behind her.

“SIRIUS!” Lydia bellowed, running towards the veil.

“Lyds!” James yelled, running forward and dragging her back, “Don't go through there! Come on, sweetheart, come on, he's gone, he's gone,”

“NO!” She screamed, fighting to get back to the veil, “We can just reach in and grab him!”

“He's gone, love, he's gone,” James said to her, “I'm sorry, I'm really, really sorry. He's gone. He's gone,”

Remus staggered away from the group and dropped to the floor, his head in his hands. This was not fair. He had only just gotten him back. They had only just got James back. They had only just got each other back. He balled his hands into fists and tugged at his hair as tears began to flow down his cheeks as he screamed, “fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” over and over again in his brain. Every time he got something good in his life, it was taken away in an instant.

James dropped down next to him, wiping his eyes. Remus looked around the room, trying to find Harry and Lydia. Harry was sat next to Neville and Lydia was stood on the other side of the room, sobbing into Ron's shoulder whilst Hermione rubbed her back, and he was comforted by the thought that they had a good support system.

“We’re gonna get through this, mate,” James whispered, putting his arm around him, “We have to. For him,”

Not alone, Remus thought to himself.

_ June 30th, 1997 _

Remus stood besides Tonks in the hospital wing, unable to look up at her. He couldn't look at anyone. All he could hear was the sounds Professor Sprout attending to someone in the bed diagonal to him and Madam Pomfrey reassuring Ron that Bill would be fine. At first, a wave of annoyance washed over his body. He was angry that someone could be so upset at the thought of a loved one turning into someone like him, but then he felt a stab of pity for Bill and the rest of the Weasleys. Lycanthropy wasn't something to aspire to, and he hoped that his theory that Bill would not be a true Werewolf held up. He wouldn't want Bill to go through what he did, and he certainly didn't want Molly or Arthur to watch their son go through that. His own parents had never coped well with his condition.

He almost made a feeble joke about being willing to share the company of Prongs but stopped himself. He didn't think that anyone would appreciate it.

The doors opened and Lydia and George walked in. Lydia's face was streaked with tears and George looked a lot paler than usual. Something had happened and he wasn't sure he wanted to know exactly what.

“Is he going to be a-” Lydia began, looking at Bill.

“No, I don't think so, but that doesn't mean there won't be some contamination. I think that he might have some wolffish characteristics-” he stopped and looked around the room, “Where's James?”

The doors opening cut Lydia off, and Harry and Ginny walked in, almost looking as bad as Lydia and George did.

“Dumbledore's dead,” Ginny said.

Remus’ heart stopped for a second and he collapsed into a chair, “No!” For all his faults, Dumbledore had been a good man. He had been the one to give Remus a chance at Hogwarts in the first place. He had been a symbol of hope in these dark times and now that he was gone...

“What happened?” Lydia asked.

“It was Snape,” Harry said numbly. Remus squeezed his eyes shut, not understanding why he was shocked to hear that Severus Snape could have done such a thing, “I was there. I saw it. It was on the Astronomy Tower. Malfoy came first and disarmed him and then more Death Eaters came...but then Malfoy couldn't do it so Snape did it. The Avada Kedavra curse,”

“Harry, I...” Lydia trailed off and Remus looked up at her, frowning. Something awful had clearly happened but she seemed unable to say what it was.

The doors opened again and McGonagall strolled in, bearing marks of the battle.

“Molly and Arthur are on their way. Where's Albus?”

“Snape killed him,” said Harry.

“Snape,” repeated McGonagall faintly, “Snape killed Dumbledore? We all wondered...but he trusted...he always trusted...Severus...I can't believe it,”

“I'd love to know what Snape said to Dumbledore to make him trust him,” Tonks said bitterly.

“I know,” Harry said and Remus’ head snapped up to listen to him, “Snape passed Voldemort the information that made Voldemort hunt down mum and dad. Then Snape told Dumbledore that he hadn't realised what he was doing. He said he was really sorry and that he was sorry he was dead,”

Remus couldn't help it and laughed bitterly.

“And Dumbledore believed that? Dumbledore believed Snape was sorry that James was dead? He hated James more than anything!”

“And he didn't think my mother was worth a damn, either...he called her ‘Mudblood he did...” Harry muttered, “Where's dad?”

Remus turned to look at Lydia but she seemed incapable of answering. Lydia rested her head on George’s shoulder and closed her eyes. Remus had a pretty good idea that he knew what had happened.

“What happened, Lydia?” Harry asked slowly.

“I got the DA together and assigned them posts. I stayed outside the Room of Requirement with Ron and then they came...Ginny and Neville were in the dungeons and Hermione and Luna were outside Snape's office,”

“What happened?” Harry asked, turning to face Hermione.

“Nothing happened for ages and we didn't know what was happening upstairs because Lydia and Ron had the Marauders Map. And then Flitwick came running down into the dungeons at around midnight, shouting about Death Eaters in the castle. I don't think he even realised at me and Luna were there because he just straight into Snape's office!”

She groaned, “and we were so stupid! There was a thump and Snape came out saying that Flitwick had banged his head and then he ran away...so we went into his office to see if we help Professor Flitwick and he was unconscious...”

“So Snape Stupefied him,” Lydia said.

“It's so obvious!” Hermione wailed, “We shouldn't have let him go!”

“Hermione, it isn't your fault,” Remus said, “If you'd have tried to stop him, then he would have just killed both you and Luna,”

“What were you doing?” Harry asked, turning back to Lydia.

“Well, me and Ron were outside the Room of Requirement and then all the Death Eaters came out...and Professor McGonagall and Babbling turned up and we ran away and then more Death Eaters came. Then I got separated from Ron and I don't know where I was...and then I found Neville and my Felix Felicis must have ran out because that big blonde Death Eater came over to me and we were duelling and I was losing, terrible, and then dad took over and then...oh, Harry, dad's dead,”

Remus watched as Harry took in the news. At first, he showed no reaction the news and then he burst into tears. Remus had to look away from him and instead focuses on Lydia.

“So, did the Death Eater get away?”

She turned look at him, but don't look him directly in the eye.

“No. I killed him,”

He heard Harry gasp, “Avada Kedavra?”

A peculiar look came over Lydia's face and Remus could not have predicted the next words that came out of her mouth, “Bombarda Maxima,”

Remus’ breath caught in his throat as he stared at Lydia. He could not imagine how she could ever kill someone like that. He could never even imagine her killing someone full stop.

“I don't really have a time for a lesson in morals,” she snapped, “he killed my dad! What was I going to do? Sit down and have a chat with him about how murder is wrong?”

Later that evening, Remus braved going to see James. When the Hospital Wing was tired, he slipped behind the curtains around James’ bed and slowly lowered himself into the chair. He looked over at James and sighed, shaking his head. He was starting to think that he might have the worst luck in the world.

“It should have been me,” he whispered to James, “I don't have anythig going for me but you...you had Harry and Lydia...” He suddenly burst into tears, “You finally found each other and then...and then...they shouldn't have to go through this. You shouldn't have to go through this...”

He looked over at James, as though he was expecting him to suddenly wake up as though none of this had ever happened.

“I’m sorry, Prongsy,” he said, “I’m sorry all this happened, but I promise that I’ll look out for Harry and Lydia. I’ll make sure that they get through this war, even if it's the last thing I ever do. I can promise you that much, Prongs,”

Remus took one last look at his best friend and rose from the chair, slowly walking out of the Hospital Wing with his hands deep in his pocket.

“Alone,” he murmured.

_ May 2nd, 1998 _

When Remus awoke, he was alone.

He lay on his back for a while, trying to piece his mind together. One minute he had been with Teddy, the next he had been at Hogwarts and then...

“I'm dead,” he said to no one in particular.

Tears immediately sprang to his eyes. Not at the thought of being dead, because he found that that did no bother him. No, he cried for Teddy and Tonks, because he had left them behind, and that was the last thing he had wanted to do. And he cried because he might have failed in keeping Harry and Lydia safe, even after promising James that he would make sure he would get them through the war.

“Moony,”

Remus got up off the floor and looked around. His eyes fell on Sirius, James and Lily, all looking at him with bright smiles.

“Are you coming or what?” Sirius asked.

“Merlin, Pads, he's just died! Give him a minute!” James exclaimed whilst Lily rolled her eyes at the two of them.

Not alone, he thought to himself.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I love Remus Lupin an unhealthy amount and maybe one day I'll write a marauders fic. Who knows? Not me. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> -E.


	13. Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: Suicide. 
> 
> If Dumbledore had told Lydia she would have to die earlier.

_“True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice,”  
Sadhu Vaswani_

Lydia sat in a stony silence as Harry ranted at Professor Dumbledore, walking around his office and smashing things. James sat next to her with his arm around her. He hadn't really shown any emotion since they had watched Sirius fall backwards through the veil, though that could have been more to do with shock than anything else. He didn't even try and control his son as he swore at the Headmaster. The portraits that hung around the office were the only ones who seemed to be reacting to anything.

She had had too hard of a year to care about anything anymore. Between Professor Umbridge, those awful quills, half the school thinking she was mad, the DA and now Sirius dying, nothing effected her. She felt as though she had been sucked dry of any emotion that she could have possibly felt.

Harry finally fell silent and Lydia saw this as her chance to get everything across to Dumbledore.

"I want out," she said, "I don't want to do this anymore. I don't care about Voldemort. I want to be a normal kid,"

"Lydia-" Dumbledore began.

"No. I don't care. I really do not give a shit. Don't tell me about the power of love or some other bullshit because that's gotten me no where!" she napped, "I just want to be normal. I want to go to class and watch Quidditch games and not have to worry about anything else. I don't care about Voldemort anymore."

"Lyds...come on.." James said quietly.

"No, dad, no! You have no idea what it's been like for us! Between getting sorted into Slytherin, killing a Basilisk and thinking there was a mass murderer after us for a whole year, I'm done! I don't want special treatment! I don't want to be part of the Prophecy! I don't care about my fucking 'destiny'! I'll change my destiny! I'll off myself if I have to! I just don't want to be part of this anymore! I don't want to have meetings with you, I don't want to be a part of the Order! I don't want any of this! I just want to graduate Hogwarts and start again! I'll never cast another spell in my life if I have to! I'm not doing this bullshit anymore. I'm done,"

Dumbledore regarded her for a moment and Lydia geared herself up for another argument but in the end he just nodded.

"If that is your wish..."

"It is," she said bluntly.

“Then I should like to speak to you alone,”

When they were alone, Dumbledore gestured for her sit down and she dropped into the seat in front of his desk, folding her arms. She had no idea what more Dumbledore could possibly have to say to her and she found that she did not really care.

“I need to tell you a vitally important piece of information,” Dumbledore said, “something that is integral to the defeat of Lord Voldemort,”

“I've already told you,” she said through gritted teeth, “I don't give a-”

“Lydia, please,”

There was something about the way he said those two words that made her shut up. She looked up at him and was shocked to see that there were tears trickling down into his beard.

“Lord Voldemort has created objects known as Horcruxes. Each of these objects contain a piece of his soul. The only way we can truly kill Voldemort is if we destroy every single Horcrux,” he said, “and we have already destroyed one,” Slowly, he reached into his desk drawer and pulled out an object that Lydia had not given much thought to for years - Tom Riddle's diary.

“How many are there? What are they?” Lydia asked, “Why aren't you telling Harry this?”

“There are eight Horcruxes in total but with the destruction of the diary, there are seven left,” Dumbledore told her, “I only know what one other is for certain,”

“What?” Lydia asked, wishing that she cared more.

“Have you ever wondered why you can talk to snakes, Lydia?”

She stared at him for a few moments and had no idea what he was going on about. Then all the puzzle pieces slotted together in her mind. She felt her heart deflate but the more she thought about it, the more she realised it actually made sense.

“There's a Horcrux inside of me,” it wasn't a question.

“Unfortunately, yes. You were the one he never intended to make,”

“That means I have to die,” Lydia said, her voice strangely calm for a fifteen year old girl who had just been told she was going to have to die, “‘Neither can live whilst the other survives’. That makes more sense now,” she looked up at Dumbledore. He was still crying, “I guess you're going to kill me now?”

Dumbledore shook his head, “No, I am too much of a coward for that,”

Lydia nodded and stood up, “I'm not,” she turned to the door, “Good-bye, Professor,”

“Lydia-”

“Don't try and talk me out of it,” she snapped, “You've been raising me like a pig for slaughter! At least give me the dignity of ending it on my own terms! Just-” her voice softened, “make sure Harry, Ron, Hermione or my dad don't find me,”

She did not wait for him to answer and swept from the room, going straight to the common room. There were a couple of things she wanted to do before she went.

With it being so early in the morning, Lydia crept around the dormitory, gathering as much parchment as she could. Then she sat in the common room and began to write letters; the first letter she wrote was to Harry. She apologised for what she was going to do, but assured him that in some sick, twisted logic, it was for the best. She told him everything that Dumbledore had told her and made sure that he was aware how much she loved him.

Then she wrote to James, Ron and Hermione. And then to George and to the other Weasleys. She wrote to Mad-Eye, to Kingsley and to Tonks, asking them to promise to make sure Harry never did anything stupid. She wrote to Dobby and thanked him for everything, and told him how happy she was that he had found his freedom. She then wrote to every member of the DA - even to Zacharias Smith - and thanked them for standing by her. She wrote to Remus, Professors McGonagall, Babbling, Sprout, Sinastra, Flitwick and then to Hagrid. She thanked them for everything and, once again, asked that they looked after Harry. She even wrote to Mrs Figg, because she had done a lot for them over the years.

Finally, she was done. She rolled up each piece of parchment and piled them up nearly, leaving a note for the other Slytherins to give them to those they were addressed to. She hoped they would be able to put their differences aside and at least do this for her.

Still feeling supremely calm, Lydia rose from her seat in the common and left without looking back. She did not take much notice of anything as she walked out into the grounds. If she started taking notice of the castle around her, she would never do it. And she had to do it so that the world could be one day free of Lord Voldemort.

Without looking to see if the curtains were open, Lydia snuck past Hagrid's hut and into the shade of the trees of the Forbidden Forest, checking to see she was not visible from the castle. She hoped that Hagrid was not the one to find her.

Lydia took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as tears began to cascade down her cheeks. She had always assumed that her life would end earlier than most, she just never thought that it would be on her own terms. And really, she was glad it was going to end like that. She was quite happy that she was able to take control of the narrative and would do be able to do the one thing that Voldemort had always dreamed of doing, but never could. It felt like one last act of rebellion.

“Fuck you, Tom Riddle,” she whispered to herself.

With one last fleeting thought of those she loved, he turned her wand on herself and whispered the two words she had been running from her entire life.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you believe that I've uploaded two shorts in the space of a day? Look at me, actually writing. 
> 
> I thought of this idea halfway through college today and I basically ran from college the moment the class ended so I could write this. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this! 
> 
> -E.


	14. Don't Let This Destroy You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part 2 to the last short that I put up, so maybe read that one first or you're going to be v confused. 
> 
> Also, there is a brief mention of suicide in this, please on read if you feel comfortable enough to do so.

Harry and James sat in complete silence in an unused classroom on the second floor. Harry did not feel like going back to the Gryffindor common room or the Hospital Wing, and James did not want to go back to Grimmauld Place and be confronted with a house devoid of Sirius.

All Harry wanted to do was find Lydia. He assumed that Professor Dumbledore was trying to convince her to fight Voldemort, but he knew that the Headmaster was fighting a losing battle. It was clear to Harry that Lydia had made up her mind and she was far too stubborn to listen to a word of whatever Dumbledore could possibly be saying to her now.

Harry glanced sideways at James’ watch and sighed. It was almost seven in the morning, and Lydia was still not back. She must have been with Dumbledore for almost four hours now, which meant that she was definitely putting up a fight. He was surprised that they couldn't hear her voice ringing throughout the castle.

Quite suddenly, his scar began to burn. It was almost as though someone had pressed a hot piece of metal to his skin. He squeezes his eyes shut and furiously rubbed his forehead, but nothing was helping to distract from the pain.

“Hey, hey, Harry, son,” James said quietly, pulling his hand away from his face, “That isn't going to help you. What's wrong it? Is it your scar?”

He nodded, tears stinging his eyes.

“It's just the aftermath of...everything,” he looked up at his dad, “I just want it to stop. I want the pain to stop. I need the pain to stop. Everything hurts, dad, I don't - I don't know how much longer I can do this for,”

“Let's get you up to the hospital wing, yeah? Madam Pomfrey can give you something for shock,”

Harry nodded, but only because he didn't know what else to do. An almost paralysing sense of sadness had washed over him for a second and he didn't really know where it had come from. For some reason, and he wasn't exactly sure why, but for some reason, he did not think that the sadness was for Sirius.

James half dragged - half carried Harry up to the hospital wing. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a rational voice was telling Harry that James was hurting more than he was and that he ought to try and make all this easier for his dad, but the unreasonable voice was the loudest, and Harry did not try and check that his dad was okay.

Up in the hospital wing, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna were all sat around Hermione’s bed. She seemed to have already a made a full recovery for she was sat upright in bed, though she did look rather pale. McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey were stood in the shadowy corner of the room, having a whispered conversation.

Harry dropped into the seat next to Ron and stared blankly down at his knees. He could not bare to look at any of his friends, not after what he had put them from, not after what he made them witness...an image of Sirius falling through the veil flashed through his mind again and he squeezed his eyes shut again, trying to block it all out.

“Where's Lydia, Harry?” Hermione asked in a small voice.

“I don't know,” Harry replied, sounding hoarse, “Dumbledore ore wanted to speak to her. She's probably still with him,”

Hermione nodded and they lapsed into silence again. Harry kept on glancing at Ron's watch to check the time. Almost 45 minutes had passed and there was still no sign of Lydia. Harry impatiently jogged his knee up and down, occasionally stealing glanced at the door. He wished that she and Dumbledore would hurry up talking about whatever it was they were talking about.

A lifetime passed, and the doors behind them opened. Harry did not turn around straight away. It was only when Ginny gasped and almost fell off her chair that he did. Hagrid and Ernie Macmillan were carrying a stretcher into the the room, a white sheet was covering the person lay on it. At first, Harry thought nothing of it but then he noticed their tear stained faces and jumped up.

“Harry,” Ernie exclaimed, clearly seeing him for the first time as they carefully placed the stretcher on the nearest bed, “I didn't - I didn't think you'd - I didn't think you'd be here,”

“What's going on, Ernie?” Harry asked, fear gnawing away at his heart.

A hand flopped over to the side of the stretcher and out of curiosity, Harry looked down at it. He stared at it for a moment, frowning for suddenly, nothing was making sense. Etched upon the hand was the sentence, “I must not tell lies,” in handwriting tha he recognised. He hurried towards the bed but Ernie shoved him backwards, shaking his head.

“Please, don't,” he said, “for your own sake,”

“No, I- I don't get it - I'm confused - why is she - what happened?” Harry stammered, “I don't understand, what happened to her? Is she - is she dead?”

“Harry, please,” Ernie pleaded, still shoving him back, “Please, please, please, don't look...you shouldn't...you should remember her as she was-”

“No!” Harry yelled, “NO! NO! NO! It can't be! She isn't - she's not - no! NO!”

Behind them, James let out an awful yell and collapsed to the floor, sobbing loudly. Hermione was quietly sobbing into Ron's shoulder and Ginny very quickly left the room, her face in her hands. Luna was starting at the place where Lydia was underneath a sheet, her bright blue eyes swimming with tear and Neville was stood with his back to them, his head bowed.

Madam Pomfrey bustled passed Harry, shooed Hagrid and Ernie away and hastened to shut the curtains around the bed. But the curtains were not sound proof and Harry could still hear Madam Pomfrey crying.

“This - this is not happening,” Harry said, “put his is some shitty nightmare! This is something that Voldemort has put in my head to get to me! This isn't - this isn't actually happening!”

“Harry,” Hagrid said through great heaving sobs, “I’m s-s-sorry, but I found her being me h-h-hut. C-Cold as a block of ice,”

“NO,” Harry bellowed, sick of them all, “MY SISTER IS NOT DEAD!”

The doors opened again and Harry's head snapped up, he was half-expecting it to be Lydia, but it wasn't. It was Dumbledore looking unusually grave and Harry's heart deflated like a balloon. Maybe Hagrid was telling the truth. Maybe she really was gone.

“I need to speak to Harry, James, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger, privately,”

The others did not need telling twice and quickly let the room. When Professor McGonagall passed him, she lightly squeezed Harry's arm and it was strangely comforting. Before she left, Madam Pomfrey helped James up off the floor and gently sat him on a seat. The moment she let go of him, he slumped forwards in his chair, his head in his hands.

“Harry, please take a seat,” Dumbledore said.

“No. I want to see Lydia,” Harry snapped, going to move towards the bed but Dumbledore held up a hand.

“Please, Harry, I need to speak to you first. I want to explain,”

Sending a furious glare Dumbledore's way, Harry threw himself into the seat that Neville had occupied and tried to fight the tears that were already streaming down his face. Hermione had still not looked up from Ron's shoulder and Harry was not sure that she would ever would. He wasn't sure that he would blame her if she never did.

Dumbledore then launched into a long winded explaining about something that Harry did not understand. Nor did he ever try to understand. Something about objects called Horcruxes and how Lydia had been one all along, and that that was why she had to die. This was around the time that Harry switched off. He didn't like hearing about her in past tense.

“So, let me get this straight,” James said, his voice shaking, “You told a fifteen year old girl who's had the shittiest year of her life an who just watched her Godfather get murdered that if she dies, they win the war? And you have the nerve to _cry_ about it? To cry about _her_?”

“She had to know,” Dumbledore said quietly.

“Did she?” James thundered, “Or did she need it fixed? You're meant to be the most powerful wizard alive! How could you not fix this?” he jumped up out of his chair and walked towards Dumbledore, “Are my kids just pawns in a game of chess, to you? Is that what they are? Do you just look at them both and think that they're disposable? Because they're not! My little girl is _dead_ because of you, Dumbledore,”

“Once a Horcrux is created, there is very little chance of going back,”

Harry suddenly perked up, “it's not over! Dad - Dad came back! If Dad came back, why can't Lydia? We just - we just have to do a good deed!” He looked around the room as if the perfect charitable act would just present itself to him.

“That would not work, Harry, for you have an ulterior motive,”

“Wanting my sister to not be dead isn't the worst ulterior motive in the world though, is it?” Harry snapped.

“How did it happen?” Ron asked, his voice hollow, “How did she do it?”

“The Killing Curse,”

Hermione began to sob loudly now and Harry couldn't bare it. Reality seemed to hit all at once. Lydia was dead. He would never see her again. He stared at the curtains behind which her body lay and the room began spinning. He did not want to believe that she was gone and yet the only evidence he needed to prove it really happened was lay on that bed. The only evidence he had needed had been shown on Ernie’s tear streaked face and the fact that Harry had found her.

“At least she wouldn't have suffered,” James said, speaking very quietly, “The Killing Curse - it's over - it's over very fast,”

That was the first time that James had ever mentioned being killed and thinking about that was too much for Harry. Thinking about everything that had happened that night was more painful than ever.

“Forget it, then,” Harry said finally, “Forget everything. Voldemort's already won. You might as well let the Ministry know, Professor,”

“What are you on about, Harry?” Ron asked.

“Do I need to make it clearer? Voldemort has won! He's won the facing war and I could not give less of a shit!” Harry yelled, “He killed Lydia! He won! He got what he always wanted!”

“You're still alive-”

“No, I'm not! I wish I wasn't!” Harry screamed, but then he voice broke, “He killed her, he killed me...I need - I need to be alone,”

“Son-”

“No! Dad, please, I just...I need this. I need to wrap my head around it. Or at least try to,”

Without waiting for an answer, Harry shoved past Dumbledore and let his legs Cary him all the way into the grounds. He isn't stop until he was at the edge of the lake and the muscles in his legs were burning. Freezing water washed over his trainers but he didn't care, it made him feel less numb.

All Harry had ever known was loss, but he had always known it with Lydia by his side. The loss always felt less heavy when there was always someone to share that with. And he had lost that someone, and he would never get her back again.

Anger burned through him as the tears streamed thick and fast down his face, and all the anger was directed towards Dumbledore. Harry laughed a bitter laugh, unable to believe that he could look up to a person like Dumbledore. If Dumbledore had ever cared about either of them, he wouldn't have kept them in the dark when it came to the Order, h wouldn't have let Umbridge torture them and he certainly wouldn't have let Lydia kill herself on the school grounds.

Then he thought about his dad, and how he might never be able to get over the death of his daughter. He thought about Professor McGonagall and how she had always had a soft spot for Lydia because she had always been the underdog, and how she might find teaching difficult knowing that Lydia would never sit in one of her classes again. He thought about Ron and Hermione, and how they had lost their best friend, how George had lost his girlfriend and how he had lost someone he loved more than anyone else in the entire world.

“Potter,” said a voice that belonged to someone who Harry did not want to speak to.

“Fuck off, Greengrass,”

He heard Daphne Greengrass sigh and this actually made Harry turn around for she sounded quite sad.

“I'm sorry about Lydia,”

“You heard?” Harry asked, wiping his eyes. He did not want to cry in front of Greengrass of all people.

“ Snape told us at breakfast,” Greengrass said and she sounded like he was choosing his words carefully, “It's - it's pretty shitty,”

“You made her life a living hell,” Harry snapped suddenly, “You were fucking awful to her throughout the five years she was here and now you're telling me that you're sorry that she's dead?”

Greengrass backed away from him, her eyes wide, “We never got on, Potter, but I never wanted her dead. I don't want - I don't want either of you dead,”

“Yeah, alright,” Harry scoffed, “and I guess you don't support Voldemort, either?”

“No!” Greengrass exclaimed, and she actually sounded quite offended, “No. I don't. I don't support him at all! Lydia and I were never friends and I always hated the fact that I couldn't find the courage to tell Parkinson to go fuck herself and befriend Lydia but I - you can imagine how much I regret that now,”

“I had no idea,” Harry said quietly.

“No one did,” Greengrass said bluntly and then she held a roll of parchment up, “this is for you. I think Lydia wrote it be or she - they were left on a table in the common room. She wrote loads,”

“Thank-you, Greengrass,” Harry muttered, taking it off her.

“Yeah, well, it's the least I can do,” she smiled sadly at him, “I really am sorry for your loss. I’ll see you around, Potter,”

Harry watcher her go for a while and then looked down at the parchment in his shaking hands. He hadn't even thought that she would leave anything behind for him, and he felt as though opening it would make her death seem too real. And yet he couldn't help but open, because he needed to know what she had to say.

‘ _Dear Harry,_

_I'm sorry. I am so, so, so, sorry. I didn't want this. Especially now that Sirius has gone, but it had to be done. It's the only way we can ever get rid of Voldemort. I hope you understand, or come to understand one day._

_Dumbledore told me about these things called Horcruxes. Objects with pieces of Voldemort's soul in them. If we get rid of them, we get rid of Voldemort. The diary was one and so was I. With me and the diary gone, there's six others left. I don't. Know what they are but, Harry, you have to find them. And you have to destroy them. The Wizarding World won't survive Voldemort a second time. Protect the world we love, please._

_Somehow, this is for the best, however sick and twisted the logic is. This is going to make the world a better place one day. And I guess this is like what mum did, isn't it? Mum sacrificed herself for us, so I'll do it the same. Look at it like repayment if it makes you feel better._

_I love you, Harry. Thank-you for being the best brother I could ask for. We were brought up with nothing, but with you as my brother, I felt as though I had everything._

_Don't let this destroy you. Let it destroy Voldemort._

_I love you, I'm sorry and I'll see you on the other side,_

_Love,_

_Lydia_ ,”

Harry finished reading the letter and looked out across the lake. The sun had fully risen and was reflecting off the usually murky water, making it look as though it was sparkling. The sight calmed him and he closed his eyes against the sunlight, letting tears roll down his cheeks. Losing Lydia and Sirius was hard, and it was going to be hard from here on out, but he wouldn't let it destroy him. Lydia was right, he couldn't let it destroy him.

“Don't let this destroy you. Let it destroy Voldemort,” Harry said out loud, “let it destroy Voldemort,”

He rolled the parchment up, placed it carefully in his pocket and began to walk back up to the castle. His heart was the heaviest that it had ever been, and he could not stop crying, but it wouldn't last forever. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. So....I really, REALLY, want to make this into a full fic but I don't think I actually have the time to make this into a full fic but I was thinking about it today and my mind started wandering and I reallly want to do it. I even have like...half a plot. 
> 
> But I feel like it'd be weird because it'd literally be an AU of an AU and I just think I'm in too deep at this point. 
> 
> Anyway, whatever happens happens, I guess. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this! 
> 
> -E.


	15. Monster

“You’re telling me that there's a _monster_ after our son?” Hope Lupin snapped, “I told you that going after Greyback was-”

“He killed two children, Hope!” Lyall replied, “How could I just sit back and-”

“How could you sit back? What do you mean how could just sit back? You could just sit back because you know that Greyback specifically goes after kids, and now it’ll be _our_ kid!”

Remus Lupin cowered in the dimly lit hallway outside of his parents bedroom, clinging onto a picture he had just drew. He had been very excited to show his parents what he had drawn, but now that excitement had sputtered out like a candle flame. There was a monster after him? He furrowed his eyebrows, trying to take in what had just been said...a monster called Greyback had killed two children and he was next!

Hugging the picture closer to his chest, he huddled closer to the door and stared through the crack in the door. His dad was pacing up and down at his mum was stood on the other side of the room, her hands on her hips. She looked completely different to how she usually looked; her face was set in a fierce glare and her warm eyes narrowed. Remus did not at all like the way that she looked and his bottom lip began to tremble.

“Hope, I promise that nothing will happen to him! I won't let that happen! The Ministry won't let that happen!”

“But say that it does,” Hope said, “say that we can’t protect him and he turns...what then, eh? The ministry turn their back on him, Hogwarts turn their back on him, _everyone_ turns their back on him!”

“Hope-”

“No, Lyall, you know it's true!” she yelled, “The Ministry are very supportive now but you and I othe know that that support stops the moment they decide he's a ‘Monster,’”

“Children - Children don't often survive attacks,” Lyall said heavily.

“And that would be better, would it?”

“I would rather see you son dead than-”

“Don't. Don't you _dare_ finish that sentence!”

“They don't have lives like you and me,” Lyall said, “They can't live like us. You know they can't live like us. It's-”

“But if it were to happen to Remus, you would work to change those laws, wouldn't you?”

This question was met with silence and Remus felt tears begin to roll down his cheeks. He did not fully understand what his parents were talking about, but he understood enough to know that his own dad would rather see him dead. He looked down at the drawing in his hands, his heart sinking. It was of him, his mum and his dad. As he began to cry, the picture burst into flames in his hands.

“What was that?” came Hopes panicked voice.

Remus heard the sounds of his father's footsteps heading towards the door and Remus quickly scurried back down the hall and dove into his bed, burrowing under his covers. His entire body was shaking and he was gripped with the fear that his dad would leave him to be eaten by the big scary monster called Greyback.

He heard his bedroom door open but he did not look up, pretending to be asleep. Even if he really wanted to, he could not sleep because what if that was what Greyback was waiting for?

\---

Six year old Remus Lupin sat on the back doorstep of his house, looking out into the garden. This was as much freedom as he was given, especially on the nights when the moon was shining the brightest. He had not forgotten the argument that he had overheard between his mum and dad, and his nights were often plagued with nightmares of a shapeless monster hunting him down.

A rustling in the bushes caught his attention. Remus’ head snapped up and he felt himself inching backwards towards the house, but then he remembered that their cat had been missing for weeks, and this rustling could easily be her. In fact, Remus thought as he slid off the step and all but skipped over bushes, this was definitely the cat. She often got caught in the thick bushes.

Excitedly, Remus pushed the thick brambles back. Just as he heard his mother's panicked yell, he locked eyes with the Monster and barely had time to scream before it launched himself at him.

\---

“What hurts, love?” Hope asked quietly.

“Everything,” Remus croaked back, he was nine years old and after three years, he had still not gotten used to the days after his transformations. He wasn't sure that he ever would.

“I’ll get you some more potion,” Lyall said, hurrying out of the room.

Remus did not have the energy to shout his dad back and tell him that the potions never helped with pain relief. Even if he did tell his parents, they would probably have him take it anyway, just in case.

“Do you need anything asked?” Lyall asked when he got back, holding a frothing potion.

“Tell me more about Hogwarts,” Remus rasped.

He knew that he would never be able to go, but it was a nice dream to have.

Lyall smiled at him and cleared his throat.

“It's the most amazing place in the world. In your first year, you get to the castle by the boats, and I’ll ever forget the first view I got off the castle. The stars reflected off the Black Lake and the castle stood tall above it all, and it's turrets looked as though they were reaching for the moon.

“And the Great Hall is quite something. The ceiling is bewitched to look like the sky, and although that's not always appreciated during a thunderstorm, no feeling compares to walking into the Great Hall on a bright summer's day when the sun is shining down on you, and you can feel the warmth radiate through the room.

“But do you know what I miss about it the most?”” Lyall asked, almost whispering.

“What?” Remus asked as eagerly as he could.

“I miss what it was like to walk down the corridors with my best friends, laughing about something that no one else would find funny. I miss having to duck under jinxes that flew over our heads with no warning. I miss seeing a perfect struggle to control their group of friends because his badge depended on it. I miss the fascinatingly bizarre conversation you could have with the ghosts and the portraits and the exhilaration of just getting back to your common room without getting caught for being out of bounds...”

Lyall’s voice began to get more and more distant as Remus drifted off to sleep, feeling homesick for a place that he had never been to.

\---

“Professor, it's lovely of you to consider him but I just don't think it's possible,” Hope said quietly, “I don't think he would be able to keep it a secret,”

“Nonsense!” Dumbledore chortled, “he would be a fine addition to Hogwarts!”

Remus sat cross legged by the fire, looking up at Professor Dumbledore with some interest. He really was as strange as his father had always described him to be. He was even stranger considering he wanted to enroll Remus at Hogwarts.

“I don’t think it would be safe. For anyone,” Lyall said carefully, “and the recovery process after a transformation can be quite long. He would miss out on so many lessons...”

“And if he did not attend the school at all, he would miss all of them,” Dumbledore replied, “Could I, perhaps, speak to Remus on his own?”

Once they were alone, Remus felt himself retreat into his shell. Dumbledore seemed completely unaware of how shy Remus was and was humming whilst staring into the fire.

Finally, Dumbledore broke the silence.

“Would you like to attend Hogwarts, Remus?”

Remus nodded mutely.

“Why is that?”

“I've heard my dad talk about it...about the grounds and the enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall and...” He trailed off, “but it doesn't matter, because I can’t go,”

“Why do you think that?”

Remus looked up at Dumbledore, “because I'm a monster,”

“A monster?” Dumbledore asked incredulously, “why, I don't think you're a monster! I think you’re a fine young man who will be a wonderful student once the first day of September rolls around!”

Remus shook his head, “No1 I can't go1 I'm a - I'm a - I'm a monstrosity!”

“The only monstrosity would be you not attending school, Remus!”

“You really think I could go?”

Dumbledore odder his head, “I don’t see any reason why you should not. Your parents tell me how bright you are and I think that one day, you will be a terrific wizard,”

\---

Remus laughed loudly as James and Sirius quite dramatically re-enacted what Pete had looked like the first time he had successfully transfigured into Wormtail. Pete shook his head and put his head in his hands, muttering about how disconcerting it was to suddenly become a rat, and that James had cried for almost an hour when he couldn't get rid of his antlers after transforming for the first time. Sirius then began to perform his quite impressive impression of James mid panic attack.

“‘I’m going to have antlers for the rest of my life!’” he mock sobbed, falling about the place dramatically, “‘Lily's never going to fall in love with me now, Sirius! What am I going to do?’”

“I just think it's cute that you ever thought she would fall in love with you,” Remus sniggered just as Lily walked past with Marlene and Dorcas.

“If it wasn't so close to your time of the month, I’d hex you,” James said grumpily.

“Yes, the fact that you can't hex me is the biggest problem that comes with my time of the month,” Remus said.

Sirius nodded, “Yeah, I wasn't aware that there was any other problem with it?”

“You two are _so_ ignorant!” Peter exclaimed, “the other problem is that I can't copy his homework when he's passed out and hasn't done it either!”

“Obviously,” James said solemnly, “that is the worst problem about your time of the month. I don't know how we get through it,”

“I hate every single one of you with a burning intensity,” Remus said bluntly.

“And we love you dearly, Moony,” Sirius grinned, “Did I tell you what Snivellus said the other day when - watch out!” Sirius grabbed Remus’ arm and yanked him down just as a curse brushed through their hair.

They looked up just in time to see it hit an unsuspecting Ravenclaw in the face. For a moment, nothing happened and James sighed disappointedly, but then the Ravenclaws eyebrows began to grow in every direction until his face was covered entirely. Pete clapped his hand over his mouth as he burst into laughter and Sirius clung onto Remus’ shoulder, doubled over in laughter. James had collapsed against the wall and was clutching onto his stomach in silent laughter, tears streaming down his face.

“Go on then, Mr Prefect,” Sirius said, prodding his badge, “No magic in the corridors between classes,”   
“Technically we’re not between classes because it's the end of the day,” Remus said as they walked by the furious Ravenclaw whose friends were too busy laughing to help him, “besides, I couldn't take points off someone for a really good bit of magic, could I? That's basically the opposite of what the house points are there for,”

“It's a miracle Dumbledore hasn't taken that badge off you,” Pete said.

“If he takes it off me, who's going to control you lot?” Remus asked.

“You say that as though you control us now,” James said.

“Shut up, Prongs,” Remus sighed.

Sirius suddenly gasped, “That's your nickname! Prongs! You’re prongs for the rest of your life now!”

James turned to Remus his eyes wide, “Look at what you've done now, you absolute Monster!”

Remus was too busy laughing to let that word bother him. He couldn't even remember the last time that word had bothered him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just really love Remus Lupin, okay? And I really want to write a Marauders fic but I don't have it in me right now. (Also, I started writing a new fic called Don't Let it Destroy You if anyone gives a shit). 
> 
> Also #2: weird shout out to Frozen Broadway for having a song called Monster that reminded me of Lydia and a tiny bit of Remus? And thanks to Spotify for randomly playing it for me.
> 
> Anywayy, thanks for reading!!! 
> 
> -E.


	16. Taking Flight

Lydia sat in the very back of the library and pretended to read her Potions book. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to pass her Potions OWL, because she did, she had just long since accepted that it probably would not happen. Professor Snape had also greatly enjoyed informing Lydia that she probably would not pass her exam in front of the entire class during their previous Potions exam. Lydia had then greatly enjoyed that she was grateful for that fact because it meant that she would not have to see him as much the next year, and now had extra homework that she could not even begin to understand.

Feeling a headache coming on, Lydia dropped her book back into her bag and broke a slab of chocolate off the Easter Egg that Mrs Weasley had sent her. Making sure that Madam Pince was nowhere to be seen, Lydia quickly ate it and then glanced around the library, looking for something more exciting to pass her time than a Potions essay. The most interesting thing was the sight of Vincent Crabbe sat at a desk, reading a book. Lydia stared at him for a while, quite sure that she had never seen him read a book before and wished that there was someone else there with her to witness the phenomenon.

“Lyds!”

She looked up to see Harry walking over to her, looking quite distressed.

“Before you tell me whatever it is your about to tell, look over there,” she whispered quickly.

Harry turned around and snorted, “He _can_ read,”

“Amazing, right?” she said, “whats up?”

“I need to break into Umbridge’s office,”

Lydia blinked at him and suddenly wished that she was reading her Potions book again. This just felt like added stress that she didn’t need in her life.

“Let’s not talk about it in here,” Harry said quickly, picking up Lydia’s bag and frantically pointing to the door of the library.

“Have you lost your mind?” Lydia hissed as they hurriedly left the library, “are you trying to get expelled?”

“Obviously not,” he said, lowering his voice, “but I need to speak to dad!”

“Why?”

“Last night, in that lesson with Snape, I accidentally saw his memories from when he was a teenager,”

“Traumatising,” Lydia said, shuddering to think of what a teenage Snape must have been like.

“It was!” Harry exclaimed, “because dad bullied him, Lydia,”

Lydia froze in her tracks and turned to stare at him, shaking her head, “Don’t be ridiculous, Harry. If anyone was the bully it would have been-”

“I know what I saw!” Harry said impatiently, “I saw dad and Sirius bullying Snape for the sake of it! Even Remus didn’t do anything to stop them! He just sat there and let it happen,”

“They were young-”

“Mum was there,” Harry continued, completely ignoring her, “and she hated dad. Properly hated him. I don’t understand how they ever got married,”

“People change,”

Harry shook his head, “No, you didn’t see it, Lydia. The way she was talking to him, the way she looked at him...it was like me and Malfoy arguing! You don’t think...you don’t think he forced her into-”

“No,” Lydia said firmly, “no. I don’t. You’ve seen the wedding pictures, she didn’t look like she was forced to do anything. And, even if she was, Remus wouldn’t have stood for-”

“He just sat there when dad bullied Snape!”

“Bullying Snape and forcing someone into marriage is two completely different things, Harry. Neither Remus nor Sirius would have just stood back and let dad force mum into marrying him! And dad wouldn’t do that anyway!”

“I still want to speak to dad,” Harry said.

“Okay,” Lydia said, “Okay...I’ll speak to George,”

“What’s George got to do with anything?”

“He’s a big distraction, isn’t he?”

\---

“ _Ouch_!”

Lydia jerked back and looked up at George, “What?”

“I hit my head on the wall,” he said, rubbing the back of his head, “why do we always go to this broom cupboard when we know that I can’t fit in it?”

“It’s not my fault that you’re too tall for normal sized broom cupboard,” Lydia said, opening the door, “what about that one near the Room of Requirement?”

“That one near the Room of Requirement _was_ the Room of Requirement," George sniggered. 

“Oh...” she said softly, “anyway, I need to speak to you about something,”

“What?” he asked anxiously, “is it something serious?”

“No, I just need you to cause a massive distraction so that Harry can break into Umbridge’s office,”

He shrugged, and Lydia was very thankful to have a boyfriend who didn't find shocking things shocking.

"That's doable. We’ve finally got the Portable Swamps to work properly,” he added

“I said cause a distraction, not flood the entire school!”

“Flooding the entire school is a distraction,” he grinned, pulling back a tapestry, “after you, dear,”

Lydia rolled her eyes and laughed, “You’re so annoying,”

“Which is why you’re going to spend the next half an hour snogging me?”

“It shuts you up,”

\---

The next morning, Lydia found herself to be in a state of nerves. Both Fred and George had reassured her that the plan would go exactly as it was meant to, but they didn’t really put her mind at ease. She had seen too many of Fred and George’s plans go spectacularly wrong to fully believe them. She would not soon forget the day that they tried to drop a bag of Dungbombs on the Slytherins without thinking about what way the wind blew. Hermione had yet to forgive them for that and Lydia liked to bring it up whenever George moaned about her being late to meeting him in Hogsmeade.

Hermione was very against Harry breaking into Umbridge’s office and spent the entire day trying to convince him not to do it. When she realised that he would not listen to her, she turned to Lydia to try and convince her to stop Harry from doing it. No matter how many times Lydia pointed out that there was no changing his mind, Hermione would not back down and kept on telling her that if he got caught, Umbridge would somehow twist it to look like Lydia was in on it as well, and would expel her, too.

“Come on, Hermione, you know that twins have to stick together!” Lydia said jokingly.

“So if Harry jumped off a cliff, you would too?” Hermione snapped.

“Hermione, you know that Lydia would have been the one to jump off the cliff first,” Ron sniggered. When Hermione glared at him, he sighed, “Look, they’ve made up their mind and even you can’t change it!”

“If they both get expelled-”

“Fred and George are causing a distraction so that that doesn’t happen!” Harry said impatiently.

“Do we even know what they’re going to do?” Hermione asked skeptically.

“I have a vague idea, and it’s better that you don’t know,” Lydia said when they sat down for lunch.

“Brilliant,” Hermione muttered, “What could go wrong?”

Lydia decided not to tell Hermione about all the things that could possibly go wrong, and just turned her attention to spooning soup into her bowl. Ron just shrugged and started shovelling what could possibly be an unhealthy amount of food into his mouth.

The rest of the day passed uncomfortably slowly and Lydia could barely concentrate on anything that the teachers were saying. By the time dinner had rolled around, she was a gigantic ball of nerves and almost went to find Harry to tell him that he was making a terrible mistake. It was only when George called to her from across the Entrance Hall that she realised there was no going back and would just have to deal with anything that was thrown her way.

“What?” she asked.

“We’re leaving school tonight,”

“Come again?”

He glanced around, “me and Fred are leaving school tonight. There’s not better time to do it, right? If we make a big deal about leaving tonight, Umbridge will never know that Harry broke into her office!”

“When I said cause a distraction I meant blow something up not leave school!”

“I know,” he said quietly, “but it's now or never, right? There isn’t any point in us waiting around, is there? The shops ready and we’ve got more than enough merchandise to keep us going,”

Lydia grinned and kissed him, “I never thought that you’d go quietly,”

Fred jogged over to them and clapped George on the back, “this is adorable but we need to get going,”

Lydia rolled her eyes, “I’m going to go and sit in the Great Hall and innocently eat my dinner,”

Fred nodded, “Yes, and George and I are going to go and abide by the rules elsewhere,”

“Great!” Lydia said, “See you later!”

Dinner was a subdued affair. When Harry, Ron and Hermione left for Umbridge’s office, Lydia tried to act as casual as possible. She simply waved to them and then turned to listen to whatever Neville and Ginny were talking about, whilst glancing through the doors of the Great Hall and into the Entrance Hall, expecting to see Professor Umbridge informing Harry that he had been expelled from Hogwarts.

“Have you done the Transfiguration homework, Lydia?” Neville asked anxiously.

She tore her eyes away from the Entrance Hall and nodded, “Yeah, I’ll help you with it later,”

“There’s no point,” Neville moaned, “I’ll never pass my OWL,”

“You don’t know that, Neville,” Ginny said soothingly, “you might pass it!”

“And even if you don’t, you’ll still end up being a world class Herbologist and-”

There was an almighty crash and the entire Hall came to a standstill. Professor McGonagall had stood up from the staff table and was already halfway down the hall. Knowing exactly what was happening, Lydia leapt up from her seat and gestured for Ginny and Neville to follow her, hurrying after Professor McGonagall who now had her wand raised.

“What's going-”

Ginny’s question was cut short by the sound of familiar laughter reaching their ears. Lydia glanced over at the marble staircase to see Fred and George hurtling down them, followed by a very cross looking Professor Umbridge and Mr Filch. Lydia closed her eyes and moaned slightly, everything had gone terribly wrong and she couldn’t help but feel like it was her fault. If they got expelled and had their wands snapped before they could properly open the shop...

“You two, have caused me nothing but trouble since the start of this school year!” Umbridge yelled.

“Yeah, that was part of the plan,” Fred grinned.

“But no more!” Mr Filch, go and get the decree to allow whippings again!”

“No!” Ginny yelled, making Lydia jump, “That's illegal!”

“Quiet, Miss Weasley!”

“Professor, you can’t allow that!” Lydia said to McGonagall, “Stop her!”

When McGonagall did not do anything, Lydia reached into her robes and grabbed her wand, going to run forward but Neville grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Fred and George, however, did not at all seem worried about anything. In fact, they had started to laugh even more. George caught her eye and winked, as though they were just going to get detention.

“You two, are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school,” Umbridge said, as more and more people began to gather in the Great Hall.

“You know what? I don't think we are,” Fred said, “George...I think we’ve outgrown full-time education,”

“Yeah, I’ve been feeling that way myself,”

Harry appeared at her shoulder with an anxious looking Ron and Hermione, “What's going on?”

Lydia shook her head, “They’re about to get whipped and are being annoyingly calm about it,”

“Time to test our talents in the real word, d’you reckon?”

“Definitely,” George replied.

They raised their wands in unison and said, “Accio brooms!” There was another crash and their broomsticks came flying out of Umbridge’s office. One of them still had it’s lock and chain connected to it. Before George got on his broom, he side-stepped around the furious Umbridge and wrapped his arms around Lydia, dipping her.

“What the hell are you doing, Weasley?” She asked, yelping slightly and gripping onto him.

“Causing a scene,” he said brightly, before kissing her to the sound of wolf whistles, “Also thought I should say goodbye properly,”

He put her upright again and turned back to Professor Umbridge who was slowly turning a shade of purple that even Uncle Vernon would not have been able to achieve.

“Lydia didn't have any part in this, by the way,” George said to Umbridge, “so don’t get anymore sadistic ideas,”

“We won't be seeing you,” Fred said, waving at her.

“Yeah. Don’t bother to keep in touch,” George told her.

“Did they rehearse this?” Hermione asked.

“Probably,” Ginny sighed.

“If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety three, Diagon Alley Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, our new premises!” Fred announced to the assembled students.

“Special discount to Hogwarts students who swear they’re going to use or products to get rid of this old bat,” George added, indicating Umbridge.

“STOP THEM!” Umbridge yelled, but no one moved.

Fred and George hopped onto their brooms and took off as the Hall erupted into cheers. Even Professor McGonagall began to laugh as they dive bombed Umbridge and Filch before Peeves swooped in, cackling loudly.

“Give her hell from us, Peeves,” Fred said.

And Peeves, who had never taken orders off anyone before, doffed his hat and saluted Fred and George as they flew off into the sunset, propelled by the cheers of their fellow students. Even Hermione laughed and cheered as they disappeared over the horizon.

“That was one hell of a distraction,” Harry said quietly to Lydia.

“Did you manage to speak to dad?” Lydia asked him.

“Yeah,” he replied, “I don't want to be the person to tell him about this, though,”

“Why not?”

He sniggered, “because he’d be gutted that him, Sirius and Remus never pulled off anything like this,”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been thinking about writing this since I first started writing the Children who Lived, just because I thought it would have been different with Lydia and George. I've also just missed writing in Lydia's P.O.V.
> 
> Anyway, thank-you for reading! 
> 
> -E.


	17. Parenting (Or Attempting To, at Least)

Lydia could not understand how every other parent she knew could warn her about the terrible twos but not the terrible teens. There was no denying that two year old children were dressed up to look adorably cute regardless of how they acted, but so were thirteen year olds, apparently. Lydia was not exactly sure what had happened to Teddy once he had turned thirteen, but she would have done anything to reverse it. Lily turning two that September had not helped matters, either.

Still, it was the Christmas holidays and Lydia was determined to have a good break. All hope of having a somewhat peaceful break evaporated into nothingness when Teddy got off the train with a face like thunder. A grinning Victoire Weasley jumped off the train just after him and George sighed and turned to Bill.

“Want to swap kids?”

“Not in a million years,” Bill grinned, clapping him on the back.

“Hiya, Ted,” Lydia said brightly, “good term?”

He shrugged and muttered something under his breath. Lydia glanced sideways at George who already looked as though he was ready to cry in frustration. Something that had happened quite a lot in the summer holidays.

“See you at Christmas, Bill!” George said in a faux-cheery voice that made Teddy roll his eyes.

“Where's Fred and Lily?” He asked.

“With Uncle Draco,” Lydia told him, “We’ll go and pick them up later,”

“Ok,” he said, sounding rather uninterested b the whole thing.

Trying to have a conversation with Teddy on the way home in the car was like pulling teeth. He never answered with a word that was more than two syllables and didn't even get slightly excited when Lydia told him that they were all going to watch the last Holyhead Harpies game before Christmas. The fact that he did not react like he usually did stung Lydia a bit; she had yet to forget how excited Teddy used to get when he just saw her in her Quidditch robes, and now he didn't seem to care at all. That season had been her first since going on maternity leave with Lily, and it had not been an easy start to the season. The last thing she needed was a grumpy, hormonal teenager to put her in a bad mood.

When they got home, Teddy went straight up to his room without so much as a ‘see you later!’ and left all his things in the middle of the hall.

“Yeah, no, that's fine, Ted. Don't speak to us. It's not as though we haven't seen you in three months or anything!” George muttered, “and just leave your incredibly heavy trunk in the middle of the hall wit your owl, that's fine!”

Lydia stooped down and quickly picked up Moony the owl before she got stuck with the trunk.

“Seriously?” George asked, gesturing at Moony.

“He reminds me of Hedwig,” Lydia said, “I’m in mourning!”

“Don't guilt trip me with your owl,” George said “why are you leaving me with the trunk? You’re a professional Quidditch player! You’re so much stronger than me!”

“Don't compliment me into picking up that trunk. Just levitate it,” Lydia said, walking into the living room and letting Moony out to stretch his wings.

“You’re the one who always says that we shouldn't do loads of magic in front of the kids or they’ll become, and I quote, ‘lazy Wizards,’”

“One child just locked himself in his bedroom and the other two are at Harry and Draco’s. We’re fine,”

George sighed and dropped down onto the couch, “I hate how he acts like it the full moon when it's not even the full moon!”

Lydia glanced over at the calendar on the wall and groaned, “we have the full moon to look forward to next week,”

“Is it too early for a bottle of beer?”

“Hey!” Lydia exclaimed, “I’m not allowed to drink until after this match and neither are you! If one us has to be sober, we both have to be sober! Marriage is about teamwork, Weasley,”

\---

The next few days did not create memories that Lydia would look back on fondly when she was old and frail. Teddy managed to make Fred cry on three different occasions and, after seeing her brother cry, Lily would also begin to sob, leaving Lydia and George feel like they were being defeated by _children_. Work became a break for them both.

“You look like shit,” Ginny said, on the morning of the match.

“Lovely to see you too, Gin,” Lydia muttered, pulling her Quidditch robes over her head.

“What's up?”

“Teddy is being a teenager,”

Ginny nodded, “and that is why I don’t have kids,”

Lydia laughed, “I love being a mum, but Teddy is being really, _really_ annoying,”

“It's a completely normal thing for a teenager to be moody. Or have you forgotten what you were like when you were thirteen?”

“I wasn't nearly as bad as Teddy!”

Ginny raised her eyebrows at her and then use sat on the bench to tie her boot laces. Lydia sighed.

“Shut up,”

“Point. Made,” Ginny grinned, “How was he this morning?”

“Kicked up a bit of a fuss when I went to wake up this morning and then kicked up a bit more of a fuss when George told him that he had to come to the party after that game,” Lydia said, “and I can guarantee that he will be on his best behaviour at that party and make me look I was being overdramatic!”

“Everyday I’m reminded of why I don’t want kids”

“There’ll be no more after this, I can promise you that,”

“Three does seem a bit excessive,”

“You’re the youngest of seven!”

“Yeah, but I didn’t have to look after any of them, did I?”

Someone banged on the changing room doors and shouted, “Two minutes till we’re in the air!”

“Whoever scores the least has to buy drinks the entire night?” Ginny suggested, picking up her broom.

“Deal,” Lydia grinned.

Once Lydia was in the air, it was easy to forget about everything outside of Quidditch. When a Bludger came hurtling towards her, she was more worried about breaking her nose than how much of a bad mood that Teddy was in. And she scored her first goal of the match, the last thing on her mind was whether or not he was behaving for George or the others in the stands below.

After five hours, the Holyhead Harpies seeker just about managed to snatch the Snitch from underneath the opposing Seeker’s nose and brought the game to an end. Lydia got the ground before Ginny did, and she did not look very happy.

“Looks like you’re buying drinks all night,” Lydia grinned as they walked back to the changing rooms.

“You always play better when you’re pissed off at someone,” Ginny grumbled, “I swear you do it on purpose,”

Outside the changing rooms, everyone, including Teddy, seemed to be in a good mood. He had changed his hair colour to match the Holyhead Harpies robes and was babbling on about how good the match was along with Ruby who, at the age of six, seemed to understand more about Quidditch than Hermione who gave Lydia and Ginny the same compliment she had been giving them since they were in school: “You flew well,”. Harry, on the other hand, was doing what he always did and complained about the Seekers on both teams.

“You complain about them so much and yet you turned down a chance to play professionally,” Draco said, rolling his eyes.

“Just because I don’t play professionally doesn’t mean I can’t complain about the Seekers,”

“In her defence, it is Violet's first game,” Ginny said, “and she was really nervous before the game,”

“I was really nervous before my first game and I was-”

“-eleven and the youngest Seeker in a century,” Lydia finished, “Yes, Harry, we all know,”

“Most of us were there,” George said.

Once Harry had finished with his annoying Seeker commentary, they went home to get ready for the party. A party that Lydia was actually looking forward to for once. It wasn’t that she didn't enjoy the team Christmas parties, she just didn't appreciate the fact that there were always journalists there and she spent a lot of time on edge, praying that none of her children would act up. And although he seemed to be in a very good mood when he was sat on Lydia and George’s bed talking about Quidditch whilst Lydia did her make up, she wasn’t so stupid to think that his mood couldn’t change at any given moment.

He behaved for the first half an hour. He even behaved long enough for a Daily Prophet photographer to take a nice enough family portrait of them. George then made the unfortunate mistake of suggesting that Teddy shouldn't have another bottle of Butterbeer because it would make him sick. Lydia had never witnessed someone's mood change so quickly; his smile dropped and he looked as though someone had insulted his entire family.

“It won't make me sick,”

“Honestly, Ted, speaking from experience-”

“Why do you act as though you know everything?” Teddy asked, folding his arms, “You didn't even finish school!”

“Teddy!” Lydia exclaimed, “Don’t be so rude! Just because your dad didn’t finish school-”

“He’s not my dad!” Teddy yelled, “and you’re not my mum so I don’t know why you keep on acting like you are!”

“Teddy, you know we’re not trying to replace your parents. We would _never_ try to replace them,” George said gently, “but that doesn't mean that you can be-”

“I can do what I want! You’re not the boss of me!”

“Let's just go home,” Lydia said quietly, standing up and waving people away as they looked over in interest, “he’s probably just tired and cranky,”

“It's your home, not mine,” Teddy muttered, but getting up anyway.

Lydia's heart did a flip in her chest. That sounded an awful lot like something she and Harry would have said about living at the Dursleys, and her mind began to work in overdrive, trying to look for moments that could connect her to being like Aunt Petunia. She _had_ shouted at him the previous day for purposely tripping Fred up, but shouting at him didn’t mean that she was like Aunt Petunia, did it? She had lost count of the amount of times that she had seen Mrs Weasley shout at George but she could still remember the horrible feeling she used to get whenever Aunt Petunia began to shout at her.

They said hurriedly said goodbye and jumped into the fist taxi that pulled up beside them. The car journey home was silent, and Lydia sat staring at her knees, trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to spill over her cheeks. Teddy was sat on the other side of George with his arms folded and staring out of the window. Only Fred and Lily seemed to be in a good mood, both peacefully asleep.

The moment the taxi had pulled up outside their house, Teddy jumped out and stomped up to the front door, tapping his foot impatiently. As soon as George had opened the door, he ran in the house as quick as anything and Lydia stood in the hall for awhile and listened out for the inevitable slamming of the door. When it came, I was so loud that Lily woke up and began to ball her eyes out.

“You put Fredie to bed and I’ll calm this one down,” George whispered, taking Lily out of Lydia's arms and handing her Fred. He smiled at her, “You OK?”

“Fine,”

“You’re crying,”

“There's something in my eye,”

“We still have a bottle of wine in the fridge, I’ll get it out once these two are in bed,”

“Thank-you,” Lydia whispered.

Holding Fred as tightly as possible, Lydia carried him up to his bedroom and carefully but him on his bed, changing him into his pyjamas. Lydia couldn’t help but giggle for he was as deep of a sleeper as George was.

“Mummy?”

Lydia turned around halfway to the bedroom door, “Yeah?”

“Teddy is-” he stifled a yawn, “Teddy is my brother, isn't he?”

“Of course he is, Freddie,” Lydia said quietly, perching on the edge of the bed, “why wouldn't he be?”

“What he was saying before...” He said, his lower lip trembling, “you're his mummy as well, aren't you? And daddy is his daddy?”

Lydia smiled at him and brushed her fingers through his hair, “Yes, we are. But you know that we’re his second mummy and daddy, don't you?”

“Where's his first mummy and daddy?”

Lydia scooped him up again and carried him over to the window, “You see those two bright stars next to the moon?”

Fred nodded.

“That's them,” she whispered to him, “they aren't with us anymore, but they’re always watching over him. Like my mummy and daddy are,” she pointed out two other stars, “Look, that's them,”

Fred giggled and waved at the stars, but then he looked up at Lydia, his eyes full with tears.

“You and daddy aren't going to the stars, are you?”

“We’re never going to the stars, Freddie,” Lydia promised, “We’re always going to be here for you,”

“Always?”

“Always,”

He smiled and then yawned, rubbing his eyes, “‘m tired...”

“Time for bed,” she said quietly, putting him back in his bed and pulling the covers over him, “I love you, Freddie,”

“Love you,” Fred muttered, his eyes flickering shut.

Lydia stayed with him until he was fast asleep and found herself dreading the day when he would become as moody as Teddy. Once he was snoring quietly like his dad, Lydia crept out of his room and closing his door with a faint click. As she walked downstairs to find George, she could feel her own eyes starting to shut and all but collapsed onto the couch, almost knocking the two glasses of wine out of George’s hands.

“Merlin, Lyds!” George exclaimed, jumping back just in time, “watch where you're collapsing,”

“Yeah...yeah...” She murmured, accepting the wine glass off him and immediately curling up next to him the moment he got comfortable, “how's Lily?”

“Fine,” he replied, “I tried singing her to sleep but she just started crying more,”

“Don't blame her,”

“Remember that time I sang you to sleep? You weren't complaining then!”

“Yeah, but I'd just had a nightmare so my standards weren't very high,”

“Ouch,” he muttered. He looked down at her, “Teddy will be fine, you know,”

“I know,” Lydia said quietly, “but what he said...it sounded like something me or Harry would say when we lived with the-”

“We aren't the Dursleys, Lydia,” George said sharply, “You know we’re not the Dursleys. He’s just a hormonal teenager who says stupid shit. He’ll wake up tomorrow and apologise,”

“What if he thinks I'm like Aunt Petunia?”

“Do you think I would have married and had children with you if you were anything like your Aunt Petunia?”

“I hate it when you’re the voice of reason,”

“You don't have to be reasonable to know that you're a great mum,” he said, “And look great in Quidditch robes,” he added.

“I would make five more babies with you right now,” Lydia said, wondering how on earth she had ever got lucky enough to marry someone like George. 

George grinned and turned to her, circling her waist with his arms, “Well, all the kids are asleep...”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I literally came up with this idea yesterday because I saw two parents trying to stop their thirteen-ish year old son from having a tantrum in the middle of the bus station. So, thank-you to that thirteen year old boy for causing a scene, it's great for me, but not great for your mum and dad. 
> 
> Thank-you for reading!! 
> 
> -E.


	18. Not Too Milky and One and a Half Sugars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George had lived a life that was free of the awkwardness of meeting his girlfriends dad for the first time. 
> 
> Until now.

George closed his eyes and leant back against the wall, his legs stretched out before him. He and Fred had, as usual, been up all night talking about products for the joke shop and before they had known what was happening, their mum was knocking on their bedroom door and telling them that breakfast was ready. Ever the more energetic of the two of them, Fred was on the other side of the room tormenting Ron and Harry as they played chess. George sat on the quieter side of the room where Lydia and Hermione were doing work, though it wasn't really that quiet as Lydia kept on swearing her under her breath as she completed her Arithmancy homework and Ginny kept on giggling at her.

“Why don't you just drop it, Lyds?” George asked.

“Because I've been doing it for two years. I'm in too - oh, fuck off - I'm in too deep at this point,” she said, “ugh, Hermione can you look over this for me”

Hermione sighed and took Lydia's parchment off her, reading over it.

“You’ve got them all right apart from number three,”

“I knew number three was wrong,” she muttered, “it's a stupid number,”

“Whatever you say, Lyds,” Hermione said absentmindedly.

“Harry? Lydia?” Arthur stuck his head around the bedroom door, “Professor Dumbledore is here to see you,”

George actually opened his eyes for this and glanced at Lydia who looked like she was a healthy mixture of both anxious and confused. Which was how she usually looked. Harry, on the other hand, looked as though he would rather see anyone else.

“He's taking away your prefect badge already,” Fred sniggered.

“Probably,” Lydia said, pushing her parchment away from her and standing up, “I'd take it away, too,”

“You don't think that they're in trouble, are you?” Hermione asked anxiously, abandoning her work.

“Nah,” Ron said, “it's probably just something about You-Know-Who,”

“If it's something about You-Know-Who then they are in trouble, idiot,” George said, “it's not as though he wants to be mates with them, is it?”

Ron retaliated by throwing a chess piece at him. Annoyingly, it hit him right in the face.

An hour later, the four of them deciding that they should probably go and find where Lydia and Harry had gone. They walked down to the kitchen to find it empty, expect for Remus, Sirius and Harry sat at the end of the table. George glanced around looking for Lydia, but she was nowhere to be seen. Frowning, he turned to Harry to ask where she had gone, but quickly stopped when he realised that Harry wasn't quite Harry.

“Oh my god...” Hermione whispered, clearly noticing that something wasn't quite right, either.

“There you are, Harry!” Ron exclaimed, completely oblivious, “where’ve you been? Where's Lydia?”

Remus and Sirius exchanged looks but did not say anything. Not-Harry cleared his throat, shuffling awkwardly in his seat.

“No, I'm not Harry. I'm his dad. I'm James Potter,”

George turned to look at Fred who looked as though he wasn't sure if he should be laughing or not. Ginny was stood with her head cocked to the side slightly, frowning.

“Aren't you meant to be dead?” Ron asked.

“Ron!” Hermione hissed whilst Remus and Sirius roared with laughter, “you can't just - you can't just say that!”

“It's fine, Hermione,” Remus said, wiping his eyes. Sirius had slumped forward on the table, still laughing, “No, he's right. He is meant to be dead, he just isn't,”

“Where's Harry and Lydia?”

“Here,” Harry said, walking into the room. He looked as though he had been crying; his eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks bright red, “Lydia's still upstairs though,”

“I’ll go and find her,” George said, wanting to get as far away from ‘James Potter’ as humanly possible. He did find it a bit strange that after Lord Voldemort had returned from the dead, so had James Potter. Something just didn't feel quite right.

It did not take George long to find Lydia. He could hear her crying in her bedroom when he got to the landing. Bracing himself for a lot of tears, he gently knocked on the door.

“I’ll be down in a minute,” she said.

“It's me,” George said.

He heard the sounds of footsteps and then the door opened, revealing a very upset Lydia. She looked like Harry, but somehow worse for she was still crying. Silently, she moved to the side and let him walk into the room before she slid down the wall and buried her face in her hands, sobbing.

“Hey, hey, Lyds, look at me,” he said quietly, sitting next next to her and putting his arm around her, “tell me what's going on. Is your dad really - is that really-?”

“He's alive,” she sobbed.

“Isn't that a good thing?” he asked.

“Yes! No. I mean...I don't know!” she exclaimed, finally looking up at him, “what if - what if he dies again, George? What if I get close to him and then he goes and dies on me, again? What if he hates the fact that I'm in Slytherin and I'm a massive disappointment because I'm not the daughter he wanted? What if reads all the shit that Skeeter wrote about me last year and believes it?”

“Well,” George said, brushing the hair out of her eyes, “if he believes that you're dating Fred instead of me then we might have a trouble,”

Lydia laughed and shook her head, “you know what I mean,”

“Look, Lyds, I don't know what's going to happen. No one knows what's going to happen now that You-Know-Who's back but you can't torture yourself thinking that he might die again,” he said, “any of us could die. I could die tomorrow and-”

“Don't say that!”

“But it's true,” George said, “And honestly, I don't think that he's going to think you're a massive disappointment just because you're in Slytherin. No one else thinks you're a massive disappointment just because you're in Slytherin,”

“I know! I know but what if...what if...”

“See, what you're doing now is looking for something bad to say but you can't think of anything,” George grinned, “this is a good thing, Lyds. You have your dad. Even you can't be pessimistic now,”

“Wanna bet?”

“No, I want you to be actually happy about something for once,” he said, leaning closer and kissing her. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, “come on, mum’ll be making lunch in a minute,”

“A pessimist is never disappointed, you know,” Lydia said, as she followed him down the stairs, “which is why I choose to be pessimistic all the time,”

“Yeah, yeah...”

Lunch was very quiet. There were a few feeble attempts at starting a conversation but they did not last long. George didn't know where to look, apart from straight ahead of him. The only problem with that was the fact that he was sat facing James and he didn't really know whether or not he should look at him or not. Lydia was just staring at her plate and seemed unable to look up.

“Who wants tea?” Molly asked suddenly.

“Me,” Lydia said quickly, jumping up, “Me. I’ll help, Mrs Weasley,”

George made the mistake of looking up at the exact time that James did and they made eye contact. George quickly smiled at him and then looked over at Ginny, who was still staring at James with some traces of suspicion. It was at this moment that George was suddenly gripped with the fear that, at some point, he would have to formally meet his girlfriends dad. Admittedly, he had been quite pleased about the fact that he had never had to go through the awkwardness of meeting her parents for the first time, and now there was no way around it. He then began to wonder if James even knew that he and Lydia were together but I'd not even know how to broach the subject. Instead, he began to shovel food into his mouth in the hopes that this would stop him from blurting something embarrassing.

Lydia sat back down next to him and went to hand James a cup of tea before stopping in her tracks.

“Wait, I don't know how you like your tea,” she said, her voice shaking.

“It's fine-” James began.

“No, no, it isn't! You’re my dad! I should know how you like your tea!”,” Lydia yelled, dropping the cup to the table. It smashed and splashed tea over everyone, “I should know how you like your - never mind. I need to - I'm just going to-” and she ran out of the room.

Remus sighed and stood up, waving his wand so that the cup repaired itself. James was still sat with his hand outstretched to accept the cup of tea, he looked as though he was in some state of shock.

“I’ll go and find her,” Harry said, standing up with tears in his eyes, “she'll be fine. She's just being...she’s just being...”

“No, Harry, it's fine,” George said, “You stay here. I'll go and get her,”

“Thank-you,” Harry said quietly, wiping his eyes and sinking back into his seat.

George found Lydia in the drawing room with her back to the door, her arms wrapped around herself. Slowly, George walked over to her and put his hand on the small of her back. She didn't look up at him straight away and he did not push her to say anything straight, knowing that she would say something when she was ready.

“Do you know how your dad likes his tea?” She asked, finally looking up at him. He was relieved to see that she wasn't crying.

“Not too much milk and a healthy two and half sugars,”

Lydia laughed quietly and shook her head.

“Out of all the things I've freaked out about, that is the stupidest one,”

“It's not stupid,”

“George, I nearly had a panic attack because I didn't know how my dad likes his tea. I think it's quite stupid,”

“It's not stupid,” George repeated, “this is a big deal. You're bound to freak out over things, no matter how little,”

She nodded, “You’re right,”

“I usually am,”

“Don't push it,”

Just as George leant closer to her, the door opened and he leapt backwards, whirling around to see James, Remus and Sirius stood in the doorway, his eyebrows raised. Lydia buried her face in her hands and George tried to act as natural as possible, leaning against the wall and forcing a smile onto his face.

“So,” James said, “you,”

“Me?” George asked as innocently as possible.

“You're her boyfriend,”

“Yep,”  
  
James stared at him for a moment and then nodded, “Potters have a thing for redheads, I think,”

“I hate everything,” Lydia mumbled.

“Just so you know, mate, back in the day I was great at transfiguring people into inanimate objects,”

George stared at him for a moment, trying to work out if he was joking or not. Sirius had began to laugh hysterically again and had to walk away. James on the other hand, had not cracked a smile and looked as though he would never smile again. Finally, Remus hit James around the back of the head.

“Leave him alone, Prongs,” he snapped, “Molly just wanted to let everyone know that she's made a fresh pot of tea,” he smiled at them all and then left the drawing room. George had to stop himself from asking him to stay.

“So, how long has this been a thing?” James asked.

“Since last Christmas,” Lydia said, her voice slightly muffled by her hands, “and I've always been weirdly grateful about the fact that I've never had to have this conversation,”

“You’re older right, George?” James said.

“Yeah,” George said, “slightly,”

“Alright,” James said, and then he grinned, “Welcome to the family! If you hurt her, just remember that back in the day, I used to fight death eaters. And win,”

“Noted, Mr Potter,”

James grimaced slightly and shook his head, “Don't call me Mr Potter, it makes me feel old. I'm technically twenty one,” he smiled again, “you wouldn't mind making me a cup of tea, would you?”

George shook his head and quickly left the room, before he got to the end of the hall, James stuck his head back out of the door.

“Not too milky and one and half sugars, please!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank-you for reading!!! 
> 
> Also, kind of random but my lovely friend got sick of revising for her (very important) exams the other night so instead of revising for her (very important) exams, she made a playlist for Lydia. Which I am very appreciative of. She's the only person in the world (apart from me, obviously) who knows the ins and outs of everything that I've written that has anything to do with the Children who Lived so I think all the songs fit, though I do think that some of the songs make more sense within the context of Don't Let it Destroy You. Or maybe I'm overthinking everything, which is a high possibility. 
> 
> Anyway, I'll leave the link to it in case anyone gives enough of a shit to listen to it. If you do listen to it, she would like me to say that she is aware that she has a weird music taste. Which she does. 
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/user/niamhc.x/playlist/7jTtkJto5coDgR0UFJIM5v


	19. Two Lines

** Wedding Night **

“Do you think that we could have more kids one day?” Lydia asked George.

“One day, probably,” George replied, “not straight away, though.”

“Merlin, no,” Lydia said, shuddering, “I just don’t like the idea of Teddy not having a sibling, you know?”

“If we do want more kids one day, we should probably get some practice in,”

\---

** November 2003 **

Lydia did not trust wizards when it came to pregnancy tests. George thought that she was being ridiculous but Lydia felt that she was being perfectly reasonable in only trusting magic to a point. If muggle pregnancy tests had served muggles well for as long as they had, then they would serve Lydia well. Although, when she and George were stood in the muggle shop and staring at the shelf of pregnancy tests, she thought that maybe the magical way would be easier.

“Which one do you think I should get?”

“Why in the name of Merlin are you asking _me_?” George asked, “how many times in my life do you think I’ve bought a pregnancy test?”

“How many times do you think _I’ve_ bought a pregnancy test?” Lydia hissed, “I didn’t think that there would be so many!”

“They also look a bit scary,” George said, peering closer at one, “Do you stick it up your-”

“Can I help you two today?”

They both spun around to find a smiling shop assistant looking at them. Lydia glanced at George who shrugged his shoulders and looked at her expectantly.

“I need a pregnancy test, but I don’t know which one,” Lydia said, before quickly adding, “We’re married, by the way,”

The shop assistant gave her a funny look but pointed out one anyway, assuring her that it would be very accurate. Lydia thanked her and then quickly hurried away, followed by a highly amused George.

“Why did you feel the need to tell her that we’re married?”

“I don’t know! Aunt Petunia used to sneer at people who got pregnant before they got married and I thought that because we’re so young she might think that we’re not married and-” she paused when she saw the look on his face and rolled her eyes, “I’m in therapy, don’t look at me like that,”

They payed as quickly as possible and Apparated home. It was only when Lydia got home that she suddenly dissolved into a puddle of nerves and realised that taking a pregnancy test was a lot scarier than she had thought it was going to be. As she stared down at the little pink box in her hands, she realised that there might be a little life growing inside of her, and there was something quite terrifying about that. George seemed to have realised the same thing because he had suddenly gone quite pale.

“We need to know,” George said softly.

“Yes, we do,” Lydia said, boldy walking into the bathroom, “it’s a good job that Teddy isn’t here today. I don’t really like the idea of explaining what this-” she waved the pregnancy test about, “-is,”

“If you are pregnant, we’d have to tell him something,” George pointed out.

The five minutes that they had to wait for the test to work was the longest five minutes that Lydia had ever sat through. They sat side by side, the test sat in front of them, lying face down. The thought of reaching out her hand and flipping it over seemed like an impossible task.

“It's been five minutes,” George said.

“Right,”

“You going to flip it over?”

“No,”

“Well, I’m not doing it, it's got your piss on it,”

“Ugh,” Lydia groaned, “fine. I’ll do it,”

Slowly, she reached forward and flipped the test over. Together, they bent forward and looked at it.

“One line,” George said, “what does that mean?”

“I thought you looked at the instructions!” Lydia said 

“I thought you did!”

Lydia groaned, “For gods sake, where are they?”

“I don't know,” George said, looking around the bathroom, “I just assumed you were going to take control of everything,”

It took them a further five minutes to find the instructions and an even longer time to try and find the English section of it, all whilst muttering about how they really should be able to speak more than one language. Finally, Lydia found what she was looking for and quickly scanned it, feeling her heart sink.

“Not pregnant,”

\---

** January 2004 **

“Okay, I threw up this morning but that means nothing because Draco did cook last night and you also threw up,” Lydia said to George, spinning around in the chair in his office, “I'm also achy but that could just be because I've just got back from practice. I also don't know if being achy is a pregnancy symptom,”

“Do you feel pregnant?”

“I have no idea what it's like to feel pregnant, George, because I've never been pregnant,” Lydia sighed, “it's moments like this when I could really do with a mum,”

“You could always ask my mum but she would probably lose her mind,” George said, “why don't you just take a test now, you have one in the flat, don't you?”

“I don't want to be disappointed again,”

“I know,” George said, “and neither do I, but we need to find out so you can sort out maternity leave,”

Annoyingly, Lydia knew that he was right and walked up to the flat, grabbing one of the tests out of the bathroom cabinet. She had bought as many tests as she possibly could have done in a panic, and had tried her best to ignore the funny look that the shop keeper had given her when she dumped them all on the counter.

Back in George's office, she paced up and down, staring at the test all whilst muttering about how awful pregnancy tests were. George was just nodding along to what she was saying.

“Fuck it!” Lydia exclaimed, making George jump, “I’m just going to look!”

She snatched the test off the desk and looked at it.

“Just Draco and his terrible cooking,”

  
** March 2004 **

Guilt was a very strange and very annoying thing. Lydia was more than aware of the fact that she should not have been feeling guilty about wanting to get pregnant, but she still couldn't help but be consumed by it. Every night, she lay awake in bed and wished that she could be pregnant. And every morning when she went to wake Teddy up, she felt guilty because she felt as though her longing for another baby made it seem like she wasn't grateful for having Teddy in their lives.

And yet, whenever she left the flat, whether it be to drop Teddy off at whoever was minding him that day or to go to Quidditch practice, she couldn't help but notice parents pushing their newborn babies in prams or see an expectant mother stroking her stomach. It was as though the universe was mocking her for the fact that she was still not pregnant.

The most annoying thing about it all, though, was the fact that she could not talk about it to anyone but George. And whilst George was always so understanding, he was just so...male. What Lydia really needed to do, was to talk to someone like Hermione or Mrs Weasley, but they did not want to bring attention to the fact that they were trying to get pregnant, in case it never happened.

“George?” Lydia said, one night after finding out that Lydia was still quite un-pregnant.

“Mhmm?”

“Have you ever thought that maybe I can't get pregnant?”

“What makes you say that?”

“I mean...I've been hit by a Killing Curse twice,” she said, not quite meeting his eye, “and Dark Magic must have...it must have some negative effect on your body,” she gestured vaguely at the scar on her forehead, “I mean, that never brought me much joy, did it?”

“Maybe we should book an appointment at St Mungo’s,” George said quietly.

“That should be fun,” Lydia sighed.

As Lydia could have predicted, the appointment at St Mungo’s had not been fun and when the midwife had informed Lydia that the Dark Magic that had been inflicted on her during her life could have some sort of negative effect on her fertility, she had been quite proud of herself for not bursting into tears then and there. This, however, did not stop her from bursting into tears the moment that they got back to the flat and she only stopped because they had to go and pick Teddy up from The Burrow.

“Do I look like I've been crying?” Lydia asked, as they walked over to The Burrow.

“Yes,” George said, hastily wiping her eyes, “because you _have_ been crying,”

“Damnit,” Lydia muttered, “how stupid was I to think that Dark Magic would stop fucking me over once the war was finished?”

“You weren't stupid to think that,” George said, “we all thought that,”

Unfortunately, the moment that Lydia stepped foot into the kitchen of The Burrow, she found herself face to face with Hermione, Mrs Weasley and Fleur, all of whom realised that she had been crying straight away. Three of them beginning to fuss over her made her start crying again and soon, George had been shoved out of the kitchen and Lydia had a big cup of tea in front of her.

“What's wrong, dear?” Mrs Weasley asked.

“Me and George are trying for a baby,” Lydia sniffed, “well, trying and failing. Miserably,”

Fleur put her hand on Lydia's, “I know ‘ow ‘ard eet eez, Lydia. Eet was a struggle for Bill and I,”

“It will happen in time, love,” Mrs Weasley assured her, “it can be so frustrating,”

“It might not though,” she said, “we went to St Mungo’s today, and - and...” She dissolved into sobs again, “they said that because of Voldemort and the Horcrux and the Killing Curse...” She could not bare to finish the the sentence and trusted that Fleur and Mrs Weasley would be able to put the missing pieces together.

“He's still ruining my life now and he's been dead six years!”

“You could always adopt,” Fleur said soothingly, “like you did with Teddy,”

Lydia nodded and wiped her eyes, “Yeah, I know, I know but...I don’t know, it's stupid but I feel like as a woman I should be-”

“-able to have a baby naturally?” Hermione said, “A woman's self worth should not be determined by how many babies she can have naturally,”

“She's right,” Mrs Weasley said, nodding.

“A woman's self worth,” Hermione continued, clearly getting on her soapbox, “should be measured by how intelligent, funny, kind and caring she is. It should also be measured by the fact that she defeated the Dark Lord when she was seventeen and is one of the top players in the Quidditch team,”

Lydia laughed and wiped her eyes, “I mean, you’d think that dying would be enough,”

Mrs Weasley smiled sadly at her, “the most important thing is that you came back,”

“Whatever ‘appens will ‘appen, Lydia,” Fleur said wisely.

** April 2004 **

“Happy Birthday, Ted-Ted!” Little Victoire yelled, jumping up and down around him, “Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!”

“Vicky, you might be the most excited person here today, and it's not even your birthday,” George said as she leapt at him.

“Happy Birthday!” She screamed.

Lydia grinned at them and walked back into the kitchen of The Burrow to find Hermione. She was stood with Ginny and Percy’s girlfriend, Audrey, by the window and watched as Charlie tormented Harry and Draco’s son, James, whilst Percy watched from where he was feeding the chickens.

“Wine?” Ginny asked, holding a glass out to her.

“Cheers, Gin. You know, I was - ugh!”

“What?” Hermione asked.

“This wine smells disgusting,” Lydia said, holding it away from her nose, “what is it?”

“It's your favourite wine,” Ginny said, holding the bottle up for her to see, “and also the one we’re all drinking,”

“It smells normal to me,” Audrey said, taking the glass of Lydia and smelling it.

“Have you gone nose blind or something?” Lydia asked, “it's smells like shit,”

“You know, when my sister got pregnant, she really started to hate the smell of alcohol, too,” Audrey said casually.

“A woman I work with was the exact same,” Hermione said, “she had to stop coming for a drink after work because the smell of the pub made her want to throw up,”

Lydia rolled her eyes and shook her head, “I’ve already told you. The woman at St Mungo’s said that Dark Magic has messed with me too much,”

“What's this about Dark Magic?” Harry asked, walking into the kitchen, “because I'm not in work right now and don't want to hear about it,”

“It's nothing, H,” Lydia sighed, “Dark Magic just might be stopping me from getting pregnant,”

“I feel like that's a relatively big deal,” Harry said.

“We’re trying and that's all that matters,” Lydia said.

“That is not something I need to hear my sister talking about,” Harry muttered, shuddering.

“Just shut up and get me a glass of water,”

\---

Lydia had been sat in front of the toilet for so long, that she could no longer remember how long she had actually been sat there for. It seemed that every time she stood up to leave the bathroom, she suddenly had to throw up again and was soon trapped in a very vicious cycle. For the first time in her career, she had had to ring in sick to work, and was massively pissed off about it.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Lydia was able to leave the bathroom and make it to the couch in the living room without vomiting again. George perched on the arm of the couch and stroked her hair.

“Oh, Merlin!” Lydia exclaimed, sitting up, “I’m late!”

“You called in sick from-”

“No, not that! I mean I'm late!”

“Yeah, I have no idea what you're - oh, you're late,”

Lydia leapt up from the couch and ran into the bathroom, yanking the bathroom cabinet open and finding that they only had one pregnancy test left. Heart in her mouth, Lydia took the test as quickly as humanly possible and ran back into the living room, jumping up and down on the spot.

“Let's not get too excited,” George said, “we don't want to be disappointed,”

“No, you're right,” Lydia said, taking a deep breath, “and, if this is negative, maybe we should just look into adoption,”

George nodded, “Ready to look?”

“Oh, God, not at all,” Lydia said, “Alright, I'm just going to do it,”

Hands shaking, Lydia flipped the test over and suddenly felt as though she would be able to produce the strongest Patronus in the world. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like everything that I've been writing recently has been ever so slightly depressing, so I wrote this the other day. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed!!!
> 
> -E.


	20. When You Were Sweet Sixteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is what I imagine Lydia and George's first dance song is, if anyone cares enough to listen to it -
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z265BuKCQrc

“I’m late, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!” Lydia exclaimed, handing Teddy over to George, “I’m late! I’m late!” 

“Yes, you’ve mentioned,” George said, “Your Quidditch bag is behind you, by the way,”

She whirled around and snatched her bag off the floor, looking quite harassed. George never understood why she got stressed about being late because it happened every single morning. In all the years that he had known her, George wasn’t entirely sure that Lydia had ever turned up to anywhere on time. He could still remember the anxiety of waiting for Lydia in the Entrance Hall before they went on their first date. She was fifteen minutes later and he still liked to bring this up to her, just because it was the easiest way to annoy her. 

“Okay, I’m going,” she said, kissing them both, “Remember Draco is coming to-”

“-pick Teddy up in fifteen minutes, I do pay attention, you know,” 

“Debatable,” Lydia muttered before rushing out of the door. 

Fifteen minutes later, Draco turned up at the front door, looking quite upset about something. At first, George thought that he might have had a bad shift at work but he realised that this wasn’t quite the case when Draco shoved the mornings Daily Prophet in his hand. 

“What’s up with - ah,” he said, looking down at the front page and opening it with some apprehension.  

**_“Who is the true Lydia Potter?_ **

_ Saviour of the Wizarding World turned professional Quidditch player, Lydia Potter is the name on everyone's lips, writes Rita Skeeter, but who is the true girl beneath the scars and the Quidditch robes? Many of us think we know her, but the things that unearthed might just change your mind. _

_ The first thing I did was look into Lydia's life before Hogwarts. She and her brother grew up in the muggle suburb Little Whinging with their Aunt and Uncle, who I managed to talk to. Vernon Durlsey, a perfectly respectable businessman said: “We give them all they needed growing up and treated us like with utmost disrespect,” _

_ “Lydia came to visit us a while back with her Fiancé,” Petunia Dursley, sister of Lily Potter, told me, “and she was very rude the entire time. She turned up unannounced and then her Fiancée punched Vernon!” _

_ Lydia Potter is engaged to George Weasley, who owns Weasley’s Wizards Wheezes, a joke shop situated in Diagon Alley. He opened the shop with his now deceased brother, Fred Weasley, after dropping out of school. Which leads me onto my next question: is George Weasley perhaps so heartbroken by the death of his twin that he's turned to violence as a coping mechanism? I spoke to a specialist at St Mungo's who is an expert on grief: _

_ “Grief manifests itself differently in different people,” said the specialist who did not wish to be named, “This young man has gone through a massive blow. Not only was he tortured during the war, but his brother was then murdered. It would not at all be surprising to me if he took out his hatred towards the death eaters on innocent people _

_ The more I learn about Lydia Potter and the people she surrounds herself with, it's not wonder that she is the way the way she is. I spoke to some people who she went to school with, and every single one of them said that she was neither warm nor kind as people have said. _

_ “The only time I ever spoke to her was when she told me to F - off,” an unnamed source said, “and we were both in Slytherin! I remember she used to curse a kid called Orville Urquhart all the time,” _

_ I tried to reach out to Orville Urquhart but he declined to speak to me. Could this be because he is too scared of what would happen if Lydia got angry again? Would she track him down and hex him like she spent so much of her school life doing? It is no secret that Lydia Potter is an expert dueller, so perhaps Mr. Urquhart feels as though he would not be able to protect himself should she go after him.  _

_ It is a well known fact that between the ages of eleven and seventeen, Lydia Potter carried a piece of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s soul within her, and perhaps that is why she acted the way that she did throughout her years at school. This could have also had some lasting-” _

“I’m not reading this,” George said, dropping down onto the couch and throwing the paper away from him, “Why is she still so obsessed with her?”

“Never mind that, George!” Draco exclaimed, “‘She knows you punched Dursley -  _ “Lydia came to visit us a while back with her Fiancé,” Petunia Dursley, sister of Lily Potter, told me, “and she was very rude the entire time. She turned up unannounced and then her Fiancée punched Vernon!’” _

“Yeah, so?” George asked, “Teddy thought that it was hilarious,” 

Draco glared at him, “Teddy is two years old and doesn’t know any better. You’re not two years old and you should know better!”

“I punched a-” he covered Teddy’s ears, “-dickhead! What’s so bad about that?” 

“I can’t believe that a _ Malfoy _ has to explain to a  _ Weasley  _ why punching a muggle is so bad!” Draco said. 

George sighed, “I know that wizards punching muggles is generally frowned upon but-”

“Generally frowned upon?” Draco snapped, “it’s more than generally frowned upon, George!”

“But you should have heard what he was saying!” George countered, “he called me Lydia’s ‘weird one-eared Fiance,’-”

“That’s what you are,” 

“-and he called Teddy a freak and then Harry a...he called him a...you know...”

Draco frowned at him, “No, I don’t,” 

“You do!” George said, “A...you know,”

“A dickhead? Twat? Prat? Scarface? Four-eyes?” Draco suggested. 

“No!” George said, “A - it wasn’t very nice - it was ...you know, don’t make me say it!”

“I don’t know what I’m making you say!”

“A Pygmy Puff!” George yelled, “he called Harry a Pygmy Puff!” 

“How does he even know what a Pygmy Puff - oh,” 

“Shit,”

“Yeah...”

Draco nodded, “Yeah, no, you should have punched him,” he sighed and then picked Teddy up, “This won’t be bad for business, will it?”

“No, we’ll be fine,” George said, standing up and stretching, “You know what will be bad for business, though?”

“What?” 

“If you don’t leave my flat and I can’t get to my therapy session and then I become too depressed to work,” 

“Understandable,”

\---

“I think I’m having a panic attack,” 

George froze in the act of tying his tie and stared at Ron in the mirror, his eyebrows raised. Next to him, Lee laughed. 

“If anyone should be having a panic attack, it’s  _ me _ ,” he said, “I’m the one getting married today, not you!”

“I know!” Ron exclaimed, “but Hermione’s parents are here and it turns out I don’t know how to talk to parents unless they’re my own,”

Bill shook his head, “You’re ridiculous, Ron,”

“If  _ anyone  _ should be complaining about in-laws, it’s Harry,” Draco pointed out. 

“I like your parents!” Harry said. 

“You’re a terrible liar,” Draco sighed. He glanced at his watch and then back up at Harry, “shouldn't you be with Lydia now,”

“Should I?” he asked anxiously, “I don’t know how weddings work. I’m not really sure what my job is today,” 

“You walk her down the aisle and then say a speech that is funny yet heartbreaking all at once,” Charlie piped up from where he was sat, “it’s a shame I don’t want kids. I would  _ kill  _ as Father of the Bride,”

“He’s technically Brother of the Bride,” Percy said. 

“I’m going,” Harry said, quickly kissing Draco and then waving to the rest of them, “do you think she’s chilled out or screaming?”

“Both. All at once,” George said, sitting down next to his dad and accepting a cup of tea off him. 

George couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sadness on what should have been the happiest day of his life, and he knew exactly why. As he watched Teddy crawl between Charlie and Percy, he couldn’t help but feel immense sadness at the fact that he should have been in a different room with Remus and Tonks, getting ready with them. And Harry shouldn’t have to be worried about fulfilling his duties as Father of the Bride, because he shouldn’t have to for James should have been the one to walk her down the aisle. 

And worst of all for George, he couldn’t help but allow tears to spring to his eyes when he finally realised why the room felt so empty; it was because someone was missing. He sniffed and wiped his eyes, trying not to let onto the fact that he was crying, but his dad realised and slowly placed his hand on George’s arm. 

“I miss him, too,” he said quietly. 

“He should be here,” George said, “it’s not fair,”

“I know,” Arthur said, “but we’re going to have a good day, for him. It's what he would have wanted,”

George nodded, “Yeah. For him,”

All too soon, George was stood before his family and friends, waiting for Lydia. He was quite sure that he had never been so scared in his life and very quickly managed to convince himself that Lydia would decide that she didn’t want to marry him after all. Merlin, having to tell his entire family that she didn’t want to get married would be embarrassing. Aunt Muriel had spent all of the previous night saying that they were too young and he didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of-

“Here she is,” Ron whispered, nudging him in the side. 

George looked up and grinned as his eyes fell on Lydia. He had always thought that she could never get more beautiful than she looked on a daily basis, and yet she had proved him wrong. Tears sprang to his eyes when she reached the front and his best man, Teddy, shouted, “Aunt Lydia!” from Ron’s arms as though he had not seen her in years. And even though they had only been apart for one morning, George felt as though it had been years since he’d seen her. 

“You look beautiful,” George whispered to her. 

“I told you blue goes great with red hair,” she said, winking. 

Their vows went by in a blur because George could not do anything but wonder how on earth he had gotten lucky enough to marry someone like Lydia. When they were walking down the aisle hand in hand, George was convinced that even the appearance of Lord Voldemort would ruin his day. He might have even offered to buy him a drink. 

The meal went by even quicker, and before George knew it, it was the part of the night that he had been dreading the most: the first dance. It had been the part of the wedding that they had both been dreading and almost scrapped before his mum and dad had swooped in and calmed them down. 

It had taken them longer than was possibly socially acceptable to find a song to dance to. Lydia had very quickly ruled out any Celestina Warbeck, and The Weird Sisters weren’t exactly suitable for weddings. In the end, they had accidentally stumbled across a song that had followed through their lives without really realising it. 

“M’lady,” George said, turning to Lydia and holding out his hand, “time to dance,”

“You look nervous,” she smirked as they walked to the middle of the dance floor and the song started up. 

_ “When first I saw the love-light in your eyes, I dreamed the world held not but joy for me...” _

“Do I?” he asked. 

_ “...I love you as I never loved before, since first I met you on the village green...” _

“Yes,” she laughed, “I thought you liked being the center of attention,” 

“I’m used to sharing the spotlight with someone,” he said. 

_ “Come to me or my dream of love is or . . . _ _ “ _

“I know,” she said, almost tripping over her dress, “there’s so many people I wish were here...”

“At least we’re alive,” George said, “I just wanted to live to see this day,”

_ “I love you as I loved you, when you were sweet, when you were sweet sixteen,” _

“I love you,” 

George grinned, “I love you,”

For the first time in a while, everything felt as though it was as it always should have been. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank-you for reading!!
> 
> I know it's been a minute since I've posted here, but I've been busy soorry!I also really wanted to upload something for Fred and George's birthday, but life caught up with me real fast. I've written like, half of that, so maybe in like ten years I'll upload that lmao. 
> 
> Anyway, once again, thank-you for reading!


End file.
